Grandfather Bernhard

In the book "Mathildedal's history" is an inset of local characters and stories of them, one of them being my late grandfather from my fathers side, below is a translation of the anecdotes from page 212. There are no name of who provided these stories, I assume these are a result of interviews with various locals by historians. 

Bernhard Lindgren 1899-1978, "Bäärtti" as he was called

Bäärtti's home in Matilda was a place where the men of the village often gathered in the evenings to play cards and chess. He was also a funny storyteller and it was nice to listen to them, even several times. Bäärtti had a lot of life experience and stories to tell from different decades. They were usually very funny stories.

In his retirement days, Bäärt spent a lot of time in the woods. He followed the movements of animals and listened to their sounds. Nothing was allowed to be killed, but everything had to be allowed to live. He also used to tell about these hikes.

Bäärtti's son Lauri, made his working career as a professor at the University of Turku. His father, however, never wanted to let his son go to school, despite the teacher's insistence. He himself was a lumberjack among things and that's what he wanted from his son too.

Once Bäärtti had spent an evening with his friend. When they woke up in the morning, they suspected someone had stolen the missing bottle of whiskey when it was nowhere to be found. Eventually, it was found under Bäärti's pillow, where he had hidden it the night before.

There it was in good condition. It would have been worth seeing the men's expressions when the bottle was found.

Once Bäärti was riding a horse at the turn of the 1930's and coming from somewhere to Matilda. He was carrying a few cans of moonshine. Policeman Frans Ruohonen stopped him and, as expected, Bäärti was extremely worried, wondering how he was going to get through this. The worry turned out to be unnecessary, as Ruohonen only asked for a ride to get home to Matilda's center. When recounting the incident, Bäärti said that he had never felt so safe when the policeman himself was sitting on top of the cans of moonshine. You don't always have to worry.

*****

My own recollections of my grandfather:

I still can remember my grandfather of late, he had participated in both WW's and did not like it when I as a little boy wished for a toygun for Christmas, nevertheless he got me a battery operated tank that I had for many years after. 

He would never speak of the war though, only said it is a bad thing. As I've grown I realize what he meant and no doubt he wished to forget anything he had experienced from that period. Generally he was very kind to us kids, he had one tooth in his mouth that he used to soften bread. Eating wouldn't have been easy for him.

I remember he used to live in a rented wooden house with 2 apartments, it only had 2 rooms, a kitchen and a bedroom and was sparsely furnished. He had a bookcase with a glass door where he kept a few books and life mementoes. Apparently he was getting visitors that was after his pension and they were drinking buddies that took advantage of him. Possibly they got him started with a little drink and then things rolled on in good company. I think that once my father got knowledge of this he got him moved to an old peoples home that had some basic services. I was very young so can't say for sure.

We did not visit our grandfather Bernhard very often, mostly during spring when the mushrooms came and occasionally in the summer and then again in autumn when it was time pick berries and mushrooms. At our summer cottage in Kustavi he used to pick buckets of blueberries and then lingonberries that he sold to the local market to supplement his meagre pension. He also visited during Christmas, I recall him liking the rocking chair. When he was at home I think he also did odd jobs chopping wood and stuff.

In Turku when he visited he used to sleep in my room as I had a sofa and it was the only place. He would sleep fast and I listened to his snoring and at times he'd talk in his sleep. Not sure what he said as it was random words or short snippets of fast and mumbled sentences that I recall being kind of funny, sometimes I'd ask "What did you say?" and there'd be another mumble. I would have liked to talk him when I was older as he passed when I was so young with so little life experience, would I have been older I may have appreciated and understood his stories better.

Sometimes my father and Bernhard used to play chess, these sessions could take hours as I think both were pretty good at the game. At least I have rarely managed to beat my father at the game and thought myself not too bad either.

My uncle Allan also lived close by when we lived in Suikkila and recall one winter when grandfather Bernhard was with us and was going to pay him a visit. I got to follow as I did enjoy visits to my uncle. The way was up a small hill, the weather was dark and cold wind in a chilly autumn evening and grandfather had to stop and take a nitropill as the ascent was getting to him. I guess the smoking didn't help either, usually he smoked "Klubi77" cigarettes with no filters.

He passed away on a Christmas day from a last and final stroke in our house in Turku, I still remember my father putting a nitro under his tongue. I was 10-11 years at the time, late 1978, he would have turned 80. On the way to the hospital in the ambulance he then expired. He had had suffered many strokes earlier and I also recall him saying he did not wish to linger in a bed connected to machines, I guess he got his wish. His passing was my first tangible contact with death and I remember I was really sad a long time after.