How to spend a winter Saturday in Seattle? With Uzbek journalists, of course! Too much fun!! Continue reading
Category Archives: Places of My Heart
Typing in Wisconsin – and Beyond
From my summer visit to Wisconsin, quintessentially beautiful in every season. (click on photo for caption/backstory) Continue reading
Moscow in Photos: Why I Love Russia’s Red Square and Kremlin (w/videos)
I don’t usually post stories or videos that I create at work on my personal web sites, but I do like this Russian one, “Moscow in Photos: 12 Reasons Why We Love Red Square and the Kremlin,” published today. Continue reading
Montana: Photo Finish
As a child growing up in Montana, I imagined my cowboy grandpa’s life to be as inspiring and majestic as the mountains around me. I was wrong. Continue reading
Sent to Siberia (w/videos)
When my employer sent me to Siberia, it wasn’t punishment at all. It was a “once-in-a-lifetime” $25,000 train ticket on the Trans-Siberian Railway, creating on-the-fly videos and stories and unforgettable memories along the way. Continue reading
The enduring beauty of Wisconsin
Born and raised in Montana, Wisconsin became my home in my teen and college years – a place of enduring beauty and seasons. Continue reading
Wisconsin, and Thanksgiving
Wisconsin Thanksgiving: Grateful to be with my mom, say thanks to my 7th-grade teacher, Mr. Armbrecht, and return to my teenaged haunts: a lighthouse, and Lake Michigan. Continue reading
Lovin’ Uzbekistan!
Five years ago this week I was exploring Silk Roads and back roads of Central Asia. Officially I was with the Seattle-Tashkent Sister City Association, an invited member of its 35th anniversary delegation. Continue reading
White-trash garlic bread
I can’t get no satisfaction. I grew up wanting more, and why not? It was my culture. Even the Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger wailed dissatisfaction over a girl dissatisfied with him. But why? Blame it on TV… Continue reading
Turkey: Coming home
I’M NOT TURKISH, I don’t speak Turkish (much), and I don’t have ties to anything Turkish in the U.S.A. Yet when the plane touches down at Istanbul’s airport – my eighth trip so far – my heart still flutters as if it’s the first time: Continue reading
The last road trip: eulogy for my father
{Note: I wrote this on the flight to his funeral, after my dad died February 18, 2012.} Arthur Holter Born: Montana. Died: Wisconsin. Forever Home: Montana. May the circle be unbroken. My dad loved road trips. He died talking about them. There it is: that corded telephone. Dad was chatting with my older sister … Continue reading
Remembering
February 18, 2012. A year, how can it be? Gone.
We, his children, dig his grave and bury him – our father. Continue reading
Changing names: Leningrad
What’s in a name? These days, it’s not Leningrad, anymore. It’s not the USSR, anymore. And my “‘Baby Lenin”‘ pin isn’t worn anymore, but rather a sought-after relic for collectors. Change in St. Petersburg is the real name of the game: mind-boggling change. Continue reading
Dog bones & relationships
Dog bones and Thanksgiving–what’s the connection? It’s the meatiness of solid relationships – not wispy, virtual ones – that are most satisfying… Continue reading
A bygone era
Soviet military veteran joins others in a May Day parade honoring their service… service of a bygone era… Continue reading
Stealing Easter
Growing up in Montana, Good Friday was an often snowy, three-hour noontime service, “Seven Last Words From the Cross.” We got the day off from elementary school for such religious things back then. (Yes, I lived in ancient times.) Impressionable, I’d shed a tear as our Lutheran pastor whispered those first words from the cross: “Father, forgive them…” … Continue reading
A lasting gift
My dad died suddenly a few weeks after all this happened. It turned out to be my last story for him, my last gift to him…. a lasting gift.
Continue reading
Russia: Some Things Never Change
While working for ABC News in Moscow, Russia I found this refreshing non-news: life goes on. Continue reading
Russia’s Soup Kitchens
“SOCIAL UPHEAVAL MEANS SOUP KITCHENS, STRUGGLES FOR SOME RUSSIANS”(First published in The Seattle Times, 05/08/1994) [My note, years later: I like this story as a reflection of the times, showing the resilience of Russia’s elderly struggling to adapt to changes, even as they wondered where their next meal would come from. I later volunteered at … Continue reading
Russia Keeps Calling
By 1994, Helen Holter had been to the Soviet Union 10 times – living, studying, and working there. This time, she reflects on the stunning changes that have opened her heart, once again, to this country and its people. Continue reading
