Finland, a love story

I’m heading to Helsinki!!

Granted, it is a bit odd that I would be attracted to Finland, especially in winter, when I was born
and raised in a very similar geographical environment surrounded by forest and lakes.
I could easily go visit my family and friends in Sudbury for a dose of the same weather and
scenery, perhaps even get a glimpse of the aurora borealis. Heck, I could even hear people
speaking in Finn! So I thought about this and will try to explain it to you.

It all has to do with Mailiis, my oldest friend. In English, we say “My lease”, but I can’t phonetically
spell the correct pronunciation for you--I’ll have to say her name to you if you want Finnish
pronunciation. (My mom used to babysit a little girl who called her “Lynne’s Lease”).
We became best friends at three years old, living across the street from each other our whole
childhoods. Imagine the thousands of hours of play, conversation and shared experiences!

She lives in Sudbury. She teaches Grade 1. She’s a good cook, loves dogs. Loves shoes.
She has the best sense of humour, one I know well, and she is a beautiful person. Her mom was
Finnish, her dad Estonian. I grew up hearing Finn spoken and was exposed to Finn culture and
Finn pride. I loved the wall hangings, pine furniture, sauna, tablecloths, sweetbread (pulla) and sound
of the Finn language that I found at Mailiis’ house. I loved looking at her mom’s mushroom picking
book, all in Finn, and I loved watching Mailiis when she was learning rhythmic gymnastics (Finn style).
I value cross-country skiing, being outside in winter, swimming in lakes, outdoor saunas and
blueberries as a Sudbury girl (and also as one of Finnish heritage). I was a counselor one
year with Maillis at a Finn bible camp. Mailiis is so much a part of my childhood and adolescence
that she is in my very bones. I still love her in my very bones.

A few years ago, my Mom and I went to a funeral for the mom of another childhood friend,
Sherry, whose mom Yvonne was also my mother’s friend.  After the funeral, which was a true
celebration of who she really was, I mentioned to my mom how much Mailiis’ mom, Aini, meant to me.
I realized only as an adult that I really loved her. She was “äiti ” to Mailiis (mother in Finn),
Mrs. Koovisk to me. She treated me as her own (I can still hear her say my name, “Lynnie”). She was
so good to me, and loved me well. When I was 12, she made my gown (she was an
excellent seamstress) for performing with the Sudbury Board of Education Choir. It was the most
beautiful gown of the 70’s! Like Cathy’s grandmother (Baba), Mrs. Koovisk decided that I was a
good mother when I presented Baby Fraser for her inspection and she discovered his warm
undershirt. In this after funeral chat with my mom, she reminded me that we don’t understand
that we love people when we’re children. For a child, life is just the way it is. I remember Mrs. Koovisk
when I smell lilacs, which grew in the front yard, and I remember
the ice lanterns she made each winter where you make a lantern by carefully watching the freezing
of water in a pail until the outside is frozen, then you poke a hole in the top, emptying the water on the
inside. A red candle is placed inside. Lanterns adorned the steps to Mailiis’ front door at Christmas.

When she was little, Mailiis had a mole on the side of her nose. When she was older it was
surgically removed and I remember feeling disappointed. I loved her mole, it was beautiful.
Her whole face is beautiful. I know the shape of her nose and chin, her lips and the way her
teeth are when she smiles. The way her eyes crinkle when she laughs.
Her face is memorized and I can see the various expressions it makes. Her hands too, I
would know anywhere.

When we were teenagers, we took advantage of her older brother Paul’s record collection.
We loved BTO and Steve Martin. We loved Steve Martin. He was hilarious, a wild and crazy guy.
We went to see the movie “Nightshift” with Henry Winkler and Michael Keaton. Michael Keaton’s
character was an idea man. He said, “I got ideas coming at me day and night, I can’t even
fight them off if I want to” or something like that. Later he spoke into his tape recorder: “Feed
the mayonnaise to the tuna fish.” We were walking to high school one day after seeing this
movie and I was babbling away as usual with all my ideas. Mailiis turned to me and dryly
said, “Turn on your tape recorder.” It was hilarious and poignant. Her tolerance for my chatter
was heroic! How can you thank someone for that kind of patience? I hope, at least, that I helped
her perfect her skills for working with young children! I know that she remains a sympathetic listener
and is always very thoughtful too. When we parted to our universities after highschool, Mailiis gave
me a book of Robert Frost poems which I loved and still treasure--it’s in a box in Jean’s basement
at the moment.

Only in Sudbury, can you grow up in a Finnish/Italian neighbourhood. Only in Sudbury would a Finn
marry an Italian. When Mailiis married her lovely husband Joe, the kindergarten children in her charge
started calling her Mosquito (Mrs. Guido). She and Joe have a camp, of course!, which I’m sure
will have a sauna very soon.

So while I am in Finland to check out the very fine education system, hoping to hear a choir
because of the beautiful choral tradition especially in male choirs, see the aurora borealis if I can,
do my share of sweeping and vacuuming the forest, I am also, in an irrational way, visiting
homeland. I am visiting the homeland of the people for whom I have such a strong
connection, the Finns, because of Mailiis and her parents (and Paul), my other childhood family. 

"Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and can't, and the other half who have nothing to say and keep on saying it."

                                                                                                             Robert Frost