This story is part of the Niles West News 2025 Immigration Series which documents community members’ experiences immigrating to the United States. Most of these stories are written by Niles West News writers, but some will feature guest writers who will tell their family’s story. 

My great-grandma was born in Finland on May 8, 1929, and immigrated to the U.S. in 1936 when she was seven. Immigrating to the U.S. when she was young and only spoke Swedish, she only had her family which included her mother Tyra Helin, father Ruben Helin and her only sibling, Rudy Helin.

My great-grandma’s life in Finland was peaceful but repetitive, doing the same chores and eating the same things daily.

“Every day I would wake up, churn the butter, and tend to the barn where we got our milk. We ate butter and bread the most since it was so easy for us to make. We lived near water so every day for dinner we would eat a type of fish we caught that day,” my great-grandma, Elizabeth Jackson said.

Ruben was a carpenter in Finland and knew that moving to the U.S. was for the betterment of his family. There are no jobs for carpenters in Finland, so making this decision was crucial. He managed to get plane tickets with the little money he had and his whole family came with him. Eventually, her father maintained a job and they started to build their new life in the U.S.

When my great-grandma started school in the U.S. she had a fresh start, meaning she knew no one. Her brother was three years older than her, so he was the only person she could lean on for help. Due to her not speaking any English, she was held back a grade.  This caused her trouble learning in school and comprehending her work. Her teachers would have to show her pictures to help her better understand. When the whole class would do something, she would follow. There were no immigrants in her class, so students didn’t understand why she was acting like this, but after seven months of consistent work on her English skills, she finally picked up the basic words.

As my great-grandma grew up, she spent most of her years living in Long Lake and attended the high school in the Amundsen district. My great-grandma was a very hard-working person, so, right when she turned she got a job at Montgomery Ward’s main catalog office in Chicago and she was paid 45 cents an hour. After graduating high school in 1947, she worked full-time at Dupont and got paid 175 dollars a month. With her consistent job, she never really considered going to college but that eventually changed.

One of her five grandchildren, my mom, Kristine Korzun, grew up going to my great-grandparents’ house in Long Lake every weekend. My mom would hear the same story repeatedly, but she never got sick of them.

“It’s hard just to pick one, but this one memory has always stuck out to me. My grandma growing up had a church and Sunday school in their home, which in today’s society is not normal. Every Sunday, everyone would come over to their house for church. They also used to play music a lot. My grandpa Ruben would play the fiddle,” Kristine Korzun said.

In August of 1947, Elizabeth enrolled in North Park Junior College and lived at home. At first, she thought she wanted to be a medical secretary but after two years, she changed her mind and wanted to go into mission work for the Covenant in West Virginia or Alaska.

When my great-grandma went to North Park, she wasn’t very integrated with the student body, so in her third year of college she decided to enroll in the Bible College, which was a smaller group. This is when she met two of her best friends.

Growing up, my great-grandma was very religious, so in the summer of 1948, she moved to Montana to teach Bible school for six weeks. God was and still is very important in her life and she loved to teach people about the gospel.

After graduating from North Park in 1951, she started to look for a job. Eventually, she got a job at Bethany Covenant church and rented a room for 10 dollars a week. She learned how to budget and live on her own.

In the fall of 1951, my great-grandma met my great-grandpa, Clifford Jackson. The owners hired painters to paint the place where she was renting and one of the painters was my great-grandpa. Eventually, her landlady introduced them to each other. My great-grandpa did not ask her out for a couple of weeks, but eventually did and took her to a barn dance. They went on a couple more dates and he eventually proposed on Feb. 29, 1952.

Their first child was born on Aug. 29, 1960, who was Lynette. They had two more children, Russel and Christine Jackson.

All of my great-grandma’s children were born and raised in the U.S. My grandpa, Russel Jackson, who only ever lived in the U.S., never understood the difficulties of the change in lifestyles my great-grandma had to go through.

“My mom’s life in Finland was very different to how we live in the U.S. and I’m very grateful for what I have. She had to go outside of her cottage to go to the restroom, do chores in the freezing weather and create their food supply. Growing up, I had many opportunities and I am forever grateful to my parents for how much they have sacrificed for me and my siblings,” Russel said.

One of her four great-grandchildren, my brother Peter Korzun, has grown up inspired by my great-grandma and how much she has accomplished over her lifetime.

“My great-grandma is probably one of the most resilient people I know. During holidays like Thanksgiving, even at the age she is, she’s still willing to cook and help out whenever needed. She grew up in Finland where no matter what she had to do chores and things she didn’t want to do, but it’s inspiring to see how she still carries those morals to this day,” Peter Korzun said.

My great-grandma is now 95 with four great-grandchildren. To this day, I always sit down to listen to her stories of her life in Finland.