Life writing has been an important tool for people to work
through loss in their lives. In the context of twentieth-century
migration, word of death and shared mourning occurred primarily through
letters in the international post. Focusing on letters written by
Finnish immigrants in the United States and Canada from the 1940s–1960s,
this article analyzes some of the ways that letter writing has been
used to address death and loss. Positioning personal letters within the
broader field of life writing, this work examines how both loss and life
writing often trigger a re/defining of the self, addressed in multiple
and ambiguous ways by individual mourner/writers.  In its unsettling of
life, feelings, and connections, loss is a rupture of the self. By
narrating their life, writers create personal chronologies, position
themselves in places and communities, and declare their values. The life
writing of Finnish North Americans provides windows into the difficult
work of trying to assign meaning to meaning-defying loss.