Meri

Various friends have been to visit Mikko recently and have seen that he has company.
Meri Sikstrom was a brave and outgoing woman in her youth - Mikko loved telling stories about how his mum used to try to freak his friends out by telling them how pissweak modern day porn was. She was successful in business, running a series of fashion stores until the recession of the early 90s that plunged Finland into years of economic strife.
It seems something changed after that, and Mikko never understood what or why, but he was confused by the woman who, in later life, refused to learn new languages as she moved around Europe, and began to 'hate' everything: Russians, Swedes, people who drink alcohol, her diabetes, the terrible pains in her stomach that no doctor seemed able to diagnose or cure. Her failing eyesight. The vitamin-laden diet and rigorous exercise that doctors said might help.
When he died, something in her inevitably died too. Perhaps it's no surprise that she is already no longer here.
We often didn't see eye to eye, but I have always felt far more sorrow for her than anger. Parents are never supposed to bury their children. And she had, I think, so few resources to draw on in her struggle to carry what she felt was a great burden these last 6 years.
I hope with all my heart that she, like Mikko, has found peace, knowledge and acceptance now that her spirit is freed of the ravages of a body too broken for it to find balance while so confined.
I can scarcely imagine Matti's daily existance. I hope he has the love and support of family and friends.
For all that our shared journey was often awkward, some of the most powerful moments of my 20s I owe to this broken family, and I will always wish that their way in the world had been easier.