Text: Mar­ja-Tert­tu Ko­mu­lai­nen

Trans­la­ti­on: Sirk­ka-Lii­sa Lei­no­nen

I was not par­ti­cu­lar­ly in­te­res­ted in ge­ne­ral his­to­ry in high school. I pas­sed my his­to­ry fi­nals ska­ting on thin ice. I was not one of the luc­ky stu­dents ab­le to me­mo­ri­ze the main li­nes of his­to­ry while stu­dying for their fi­nal exa­mi­na­ti­on.

I am doing much bet­ter with re­cent his­to­ry. I find that I cons­tant­ly le­arn about it by re­a­ding me­moirs and bi­og­rap­hies. In those books, ma­jor glo­bal events do not play the key role, but re­a­ders are ab­le to em­pat­hi­ze with the li­ves and des­ti­nies of in­di­vi­du­als, fa­mi­lies and com­mu­ni­ties.

I have re­cent­ly been re­a­ding me­moirs of pe­op­le who wor­ked in he­alth care, for ins­tan­ce a re­ti­red car­di­o­lo­gist. I have en­jo­yed the touc­hing and oc­ca­si­o­nal­ly hi­la­ri­ous me­mo­ries of lo­cal mid­wi­ves. There is al­so a great book of me­mo­ries and ex­pe­rien­ces by a re­ti­red te­ac­her of Fin­nish.

I have le­arnt many in­te­res­ting facts from the pa­ges of those books about to­pics that I find fas­ci­na­ting:

– What was it like to work as a lo­cal mid­wi­fe in the 1900s, when pe­op­le were poor and had many child­ren? or

– What was it like to spend an ex­cep­ti­o­nal­ly cold win­ter in a grand but cold vi­ca­ra­ge with shor­ta­ge of many things, oc­ca­si­o­nal­ly even food? or

– What was life like du­ring the ye­ars of fa­mi­ne in the 19th cen­tu­ry?

I have so­me­ti­mes sha­red with my age-ma­tes the reg­ret that we did not in­ter­view our pa­rents or ot­her el­ders about past events and their abi­li­ty to sur­vi­ve their fe­ars, great los­ses and ot­her hards­hips.

There is al­so a good book that tel­ls us about li­ving faith and God’s gui­dan­ce at dif­fi­cult ti­mes.

”Pro­tect, O God, our fat­her­land,

oh, shield it by Thy migh­ty hand.

Oh, may that migh­ty hand ne’er ce­a­se

to be our help, in war and pe­a­ce.”