Elli-mumma

Elli is the name of my paternal grandmother. 

She took her final breaths yesterday, peacefully. With her at the time, her two daughters and my dear sister (one of the eldest grandchildren). 

Elli-mumma (grandma in Finnish) and I were never very close. I spent my childhood only understanding Finnish and by the time we moved here and I learned to speak it fluently, I was too cool for an old and increasingly demented grandmother.

I hope karma will be kind to me despite the fact. 

The last time I saw her, she was quite far into her own world, but she seemed happy. She had a stuffed toy cat and she told me about how many kittens it had had. It was sweet, you can take the farm girl out of Finland but who you are never really changes! As I have been studying nursing and spent a lot of time taking care of the elderly, I have always found peace in the fact, that as you age and the dementia progresses, the more you return to your roots and childhood and what are surely happy times. I regret not asking her more about her childhood, she must have had some stories to tell!

(taken in 2000 at my sister's wedding)

I am happy for her, she was lucky to have children who cared for her till the end, grandchildren who will have fond memories of her. Now she can finally join her husband whom she loved very much (and had to live without these last 23 years!) and her dear siblings (I believe there were 8 of them!) and family. 

She was the last of that generation, she would have been 96 years old in March! 

Sending love her way, another angel in heaven! 

Elli Mirjami

 March 21, 1916 - January 28, 2012