Leo (Hartikainen) Hart has the most Finnish origin story you could think of: He was born in a sauna. It was Dec. 29, 1921, on an island in Finland.
A hundred years later, in a Finnish home of a different kind (Finlandia Village nursing home community), Hart and his family celebrated his 100th birthday.
It was a bit smaller an occasion than it might otherwise been. Due to COVID restrictions, Hart’s children, three grandchildren, and three great grandchildren found creative ways to celebrate this very special day, as well as putting together a group chat, sharing memories with his 97-year-old sister Tuupu, in Finland, along with other family members.
Hart is a proud Finnish immigrant, said his daughter, Kathie Davidson, adding “he wasn’t even sure where he would end up” when he left his homeland, armed with just a few dollars, speaking very little English — what they called ‘Finnglish’ — and barely the clothes on his back. He made his way to Helsinki and then set sail to Pier 21, in Halifax.
Davidson said her father thought he would figure out the rest once he landed on Canadian soil, but a fortuitous meeting would set his plan in place. He met another young Finnish man while waiting for the ship, who told him of unlimited jobs in a place called Sudbury. So Hart set off for Sudbury.
A week or so later, Hart found himself in the Nickel City with no place to live and more than a little uncertainty. Fortunately, said Davidson, “he was always driven by goals to find work, get married, build a home on a lake, build a sauna, start a family, and buy some cross-country skis. And with his great sense of humour, he would say, not necessarily in that order!”
Leo headed to Elliot Lake where he found work, but he also found a new love in a Finnish-Canadian woman named Kaija Hohter, who had him head right back to Sudbury. He got a great mechanic position with the city, and soon after, Kaija (Kay) became his wife and they moved to the South End of the city, living on the then uninhabited Lake Nepahwin with Kay’s parents.
“And yes, they built a sauna for the family and the children that soon followed,” said Davidson with a laugh.
When their three children, Ken, Kathie and Kevin, came along, they moved just down the street to build the Hartikainen (Hart) homestead. Five generations of the Harts, Hohters and Davidsons have lived on and enjoyed the waters of Lake Nepahwin.
Hart became a supervisor of the mechanic shop at the city, until he retired at 65 years of age. He and Kay travelled, and enjoyed the next generation of little “part” Finlanders, until Kay passed in 2006. Hart never remarried, but in the past few years developed a close relationship with Helen, another resident of Finlandia.
Of course, the timeline of a 100-year life doesn’t always portray the personality of the person. For that, you need the stories from his kids. Davidson and her husband, Ian, told Sudbury.com that not only was Hart an amazing athlete who was good at everything he tried, he was a brilliant man “who could have been an engineer if he didn’t grow up during the depression, or a war,” said Ian Davidson, Hart’s son-in-law, adding Hart was someone who never complained or made excuses.
Also, they describe him as “a snake charmer” and someone who lost the vision in his eye, but didn’t tell anyone for 40 years.
Ian Davidson, Kathie’s husband, tells the story. “One day, Kathie took Leo when he was in his 90s to the ophthalmologist. And the ophthalmologist happened to say, ‘well, you know, he's blind in one eye.’ And Kathie said, ‘No, that's impossible. He's got excellent vision, he drives’.”
But as it turns out, he went blind in one eye in his sixties. “But this was a guy that never complained about anything. He never made excuses about why something didn't work, he just went about doing what he needed to do and figuring out how to fix things,” said Ian Davidson.
And yes, snake charmer. Hart loved his garden, loved to be there with his cat, Kookie, and his pet garter snake.
“My dad used to go out every day to the garden,” said Davidson. “He had a pet garter snake and I was witness to this. My dad would go into the garden, and the garter snake would come out of wherever he was and he'd slither along beside my dad, my dad would talk to it and stuff and the cat would come out and actually play with it, not try and hurt it, not try and eat it. That snake lived that whole summer with them.”
Not only a gifted mechanic but a man who built his own home, and who fought in the Second World War – one of the few remaining Finnish veterans of that war.
Most of all, said Davidson, her father had a quiet strength. For those who know the term, he had what the Finnish call ‘sisu’ (although there’s no direct translation, the concept of ‘sisu’ means something like strength or perseverance, grit).
To celebrate his birthday, said Davidson, “We will raise a beer (Kalia) and eat some traditional Finn bread (puula) and honour your life and legacy Pappa. Kiitos and Hyvaa 100 syntymapaivaa!”
