Liisa and Reijo just told us the story of her father, who fought for the Reds in FInland's civil war when he was 17 and still in high school. He was captured and on the verge of being executed when his teacher came and claimed him. Years later he told his children, "I was a social democrat like my father because we shared a philosophy of 'what's mine is yours.' In the Red Army I saw that the socialist leaders' philosophy was more like 'what's yours is mine.'" This experience transformed him into a lifelong conservative. For his contributions as a member of the Reds he received a long ban from voting or holding public office.

After the civil war, during the Depression, he wandered the country in search of work, taking whatever job was offered, almost. He left one job, accompanied by a friend, because the wages were unlivable. They accepted a nearby factory job, but then learned that its accompanying wages were even lower than what they ahd left behind. "Let's go before they lock us in," he told his friend.

When war struck Finland again in the form of Soviet invasion he volunteered to fight because, he said, "I owe it to this country for having been a Red." Eventually, when the war began to turn in Finland's favour, he was retired from service as one of the older soldiers.

He became a professional leather worker and amateur Skier. Every year he skied more than a thousand kilometres and made countless miles of leather, right into his late 70s. At 82 he could no longer find the bathroom so he hopped out the window at night to pee. His wife would cry for help but by the time Liisa or Reijo got outside he would have jumped back inside again.

He died soon after and left an indelible impression on the ones he loved. "He always had good stories," said Reijo, "and unlike my brother he never repeated them. He read every book in the library so if he had none of his own he'd tell you someone else's."