Golden Anniversary

Published 12:00am Saturday, July 24, 2004
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When the clock strikes midnight on Aug. 1, Mabel and Harland Helland will have been married for 50 years. They credit their longevity to, among other things, Fergus Falls and its people. &uot;Fergus Falls is a wonderful place to bring up your family,&uot; said Harland, who moved here from southern Minnesota with his family as a teen and dropped out of school to farm, then resumed high school at the age of 19, finishing Hillcrest Lutheran Academy when he was 23. It was at Hillcrest that he met his future bride, Mabel, a Norweigan from Brooklyn, N.Y. &uot;My father came from Norway,&uot; Mabel said. &uot;He went to seminary in Fergus Falls and had such a good experience that as kids in Brooklyn, we grew up looking forward to going to Bible school in Fergus Falls.&uot; The two didn’t know each other personally while they studied in Hillcrest. &uot;At the time [in Hillcrest], we were dating other people,&uot; said Harland. It was in Brooklyn that they made a personal acquaintance and eventually married. &uot;I dated the youth minister at my church [in Brooklyn],&uot; laughed Mabel as she pointed to the grinning Harland. Harland graduated from Lutheran Brethren Seminary

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