MEMORIES FROM ALAJÄRVI
Life on my grandparents' farm
My mother's parents owned a large two-story farmhouse called Pohjala. A huge big birch grew in its yard. We, the three boys, were fond of birch and went to hug it so we reached out to hold each other's hands around it. Perhaps we were one of the first wood lovers in Finland!
The arable land consisted of three long rows of turnips. Rye was also cultivated and we were self-sufficient in food. There were three cows in the cowhouse: Muurikki, Mansikki and Mustikki. In the stable was one horse and a few sheep. There were chickens in the yard and it was nice to follow, their constant picks of worms and pecking of grains.
Once in the summer, I saw a chicken in panic behind an iron bed that was slanted on the wall of a barn. Its beak spilled blood. It was said to have survived the goshawk attack and fortunately it survived.
I have such an obscure image that I saw that goshawk was flying downward near our yard and I shouted to my brothers, "Look how big a bird!" Perhaps the chickens heard my shout too, were also vigilant because of it, and survived the attack of goshawk.
I drowned in a forest muddy pond at the age of 3
On the edge of the fields of the house was a small stream with a clear water. There was long and wide meadow on the other side the stream, behind which the forest. In the forest there was a small muddy pond. Mother warned us boys about the viper (snakes) that were in large numbers on the meadow and we were not even allowed to go to the pond. We boys thought that if we run barefoot fast enough, the viper wouldn't bite us.
Because the mother made crafts at home, she could not always shepherd her sons. Most of the time we were allowed to be in our own yard. So one summer day, we secretly ran fast barefoot across a long meadow into the woods onto on a mud pond because it was exciting.
There were a few rocks on the beach. We hopped from stone to stone. I decided to jump from a big stone to a swamp, but there was deep water underneath it and I slipped, dropping my head first so my head and my upper body down to the ankles sank into the mud. I was moved into another dimension where I was sitting on a green meadow. Initially, I was there alone and couldn't move myself, not even my little finger.
Soon a small and petite bird came close to me and began to sing. It sang very beautifully, apparently to me. For a long time I listened to a beautiful bird singing, wondering where I was? When I finally woke up, I saw myself naked in a water filled tinned washing oval and looked into my mother's eyes. She smiled and said, "Now Leif is back to life!" My body was completely green with birch pollen. It had fallen into a mantle everywhere on the surface of the mud pond.
She must have prayed for help from above, a devout believer when she was. None of them understood to give me artificial respiration. Still, I had the grace to return to life. Thank you to my Heavenly Father! HalleluYah! As a result was, that I had a temporary speech disorder and my godmother, Selma, said I stuttered for over a year.
When I visited at my godmother Selma just after that, I was enthused and liked of their beautiful paintings and pointing at them and stuttering, "To, to, to, to!" It made Selma and Leve to smile. They had really awesome landscape paintings. I fully recovered from my speech problems in about 2 years.
Maybe I got a slight brain damage due to lack of oxygen. That's what Adonai alone knows. However, I have been alive since that accident for almost 70 years, so the severe damage there are certainly not been.
The Guardian Angel helped Lars boy
It happened wonderful to Lars when he was 5 years old. He slept on the top bed of the bunk bed and had a board placed at the edge so he wouldn't accidentally fall down while sleeping. One night the board had fallen down and Lars began to fall head first down, thinking he was asleep.
My jaw was dislocated
Mother's parents were not rich, but rather poor too. Frequently, hunger groaned in my gut, and when I asked my grandmother for bread, she gave me a stone hard bread cradle she had taken from the breadcrumbs on the roof. I went to the yard and tried to eat it with my little teeth with the consequence that my jaw went out of position. It is still dislocated.
Some dentists notice this and ask, "Do you know that your jaw is not in right position?" I must had to live with that injury. Jaw joints not in right position. Therefore, biting is done only by the muscles, and jaw muscles get tired quickly when I chew bread or something hard.
If my grandmother ought to had thought a little more, she would have put that piece of bread in the water to soften and asked me to wait a moment before I started chewing it.
The farmhouse' chores
My mother didn't bother to cook oat porridge, but she nourished us by giving in water soaked oat flakes, which meant that the oat flakes were mixed with lukewarm water. Even then they swelled.
I helped my grandmother with butter making by rotating the machine with torsion lever. Machine was filled with creamy whole milk. My parents and godparents have already been called to eternity.
That is why I also endeavor to tell, without embellishment, the weaknesses that we all have, some have more and some less. Telling the facts in a friendly manner is part of honesty.
I do not like the fact that in the funeral is often just praised the dead and spoken only good of him, even if he would have be quite evil, bad and even violent in his life. Nor should he be insulted, but him ought to be judged correctly.
Even the evil father and unworthy mother are dear to their children, and the loss of parents is often a great sadness for children. In addition, time changes memories and children remember best the good things about their youth. It is the defense mechanism created by our Creator into the human heart.
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