GLORIA (KONSA) MEIUSI, a 1954 Battle Ground High School graduate, holds up a copy of the book she recently wrote, “My Father’s Guiding Hand.” The book details her experiences as a refugee from Estonia and how her family got out of the country during the Soviet occupation.
A YOUNG Gloria (Konsa) Meiusi is shown here in her Battle Ground High School letterman’s sweater back in the 1950s.
As 82-year-old Gloria (Konsa) Meiusi recalls coming to the Hockinson/Battle Ground area from Sweden to live on what she fondly refers to as “The Farm” in 1947, she warmly describes “The Farm” as somewhere that became a gathering place for numerous Estonians who were always welcomed with open arms.
“My father was the kind of person who gave everyone a hug and welcomed everyone,” Meiusi said, laughing.
Meiusi, who now lives in Denver, Colorado, with her husband, Endel, came to the north Clark County area from Sweden in 1947 after living through the brutal days of the 1940 Soviet occupation of Estonia. She attended Hockinson Elementary School hardly knowing a word of English. Meiusi’s daughter, Lillian Tamm, said the school put her mother in the fifth grade, though she was already 13 years old.
Once Meiusi was able to get the English language down, she was able to quickly catch up a year before attending Battle Ground High School.
“She graduated with honors in 1954 and was on the girls basketball team and played field hockey, was student body vice president, Girl’s League secretary, was on the student council and part of the Tigerettes (pep club), as well as singing in the high school choir and generally being involved,” Tamm said of her mother.
“I do have some roots there (in Washington state),” Meiusi said. “I call Washington my home state. That’s where I became an American citizen.”
“The Farm,” where Meiusi came to live in the Hockinson area, was owned by her uncle Walter who had come to the area in 1908.
“He’s one of the old timers,” Meiusi said of her uncle. “He was very active in the community of Hockinson, with the fire department that is still there. He was the one who went around collecting names for things like when there were certain weeds that needed to be killed, he would go around and get people to sign up to help. He was a very community-centered person.”
After living in the states for several years, Meiusi began speaking at a lot of different Christian women’s clubs and other groups, telling her story of being a refuge from Estonia. She was often invited to different groups to tell her personal life story, how she lived under communism and how her family got out.
After high school, Meiusi went on to attend Linfield College in Oregon and obtained her degree in music. Her husband, Endel, who was also from Estonia, became a pastor and began pastoring at different American churches. As Meiusi continued to speak about her experience, people began asking if she had ever considered writing a book about what she went through.
With that idea on the backburner for a while, Meiusi and her husband decided to start a ministry that would help their home country of Estonia, the Estonian Christian Ministry. When Estonia finally broke free from communism in 1991, Meiusi said Endel applied for a radio license and became the first person to obtain a private network license to broadcast Christian programming in Estonia.
The two still continue to support the Estonian Christian Ministry, with headquarters in Denver.
In 2009, Meiusi finally decided to try her hand at writing a book about her experiences in Estonia and how she was able to get out of the country.
“We have twin sons and one daughter, and each one of them has children,” Meiusi said. “The grandchildren would have grandma come to their house or they would come over to our house, and they would say to me, ‘Grandma, tell us the stories of when you were a little girl.’ I started telling them the different experiences I had and as they got older they started telling me, ‘you should write these down, you should write a book about them.’”
So, Meiusi sat down at the computer one day in 2009 and started typing some of her experiences out, and, eventually, it became a story.
The result of her writing is “My Father’s Guiding Hand,” a book that recounts the brutal days of the 1940 Soviet occupation of Estonia. Throughout the book, Meiusi shares memories of her family’s life in Estonia when the Russian government first set up military bases there in 1939 and overthrew the government in 1940. The book also details how she ended up in the Battle Ground area.
Meiusi said that the title of the book, “My Father’s Guiding Hand,” refers to both her heavenly father and her earthly father.
“My father was so instrumental in how my life turned out, my attitudes, the way I am now,” Meiusi said. “In my book, I write about going to Battle Ground High School and I mention quite a few of the people there.”
According to a press release about Meiusi’s book from her daughter, Lillian Tamm: “My Father’s Guiding Hand outlines how her father’s spiritual influence affected many lives, and the power of praying together as a family. Of interest to more than just the Estonians who lived during that period, it gives insight into a time when normal lives were disrupted and families displaced. The account also places high value on the physical and spiritual liberties that are often taken for granted.”
Meiusi recalls harrowing memories of escaping the country in a small fishing boat during the stormiest time of the year and living in refugee camps in Sweden. She says, “It is truly a miracle that I am here, alive to tell this story, when I rightfully should be dead on the bottom of the Baltic Sea.”
Published by Redemption Press, “My Father’s Guiding Hand” is available in paperback format for a retail price of $16.99 and e-book format for a retail price of $3.99. The book can be purchased by visiting https://www.redemption-press.com. The book is also available online through sites like Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com.
