Pönniö, The evacuee girl’s centennial journey – From Harlu to Kotka – Biography

As if from one mouth, without prior agreement and spontaneously, the song ”In the Villages of Karelia” echoed into the air. For each bus passenger from their home region, the song meant their own, intimate memory of their childhood home and family, its fields and pastures. Still, now, sung together, it also meant an inseparable sense of community – Ladoga Karelianism. What is the secret to longevity? It is a question that is most often posed to 100-year-olds. It is difficult to give an explanation based solely on historical background and the experiences of siblings or one’s parents. Early youth and adulthood, ruined by war and the deprivation of one’s roots from the soil of lost Karelia for the Soviet Union, could not have been a safe starting point for a long life. Finns born in 1925 were the youngest entire generation that had to bear the responsibility that adults had been given for defending Finland both on the war and home fronts. This biography explores the survival story of one representative of that generation from the war years to the present day.