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February 9th 2001 saw the passing of Annikki's father.
He was an extraordinary individual.
Living a life based on principles
should be the objective of every human being. However, principles
should be based on some tenants that do not cause harm to any
other human being.
In today's competitive world
this is extremely difficult. There is a rat race in progress
at every stage of life. The sole objective of life appears to
be to get ahead of one's neighbour.
The first commandment that
a Christian should follow says that you should love your neighbour
as much as you love yourself. This is a double edged sword as
the second commandment is that you should love God with all your
heart and mind. As God lives within you, you are His temple.
Hence to love a neighbour as
much as you love yourself means that you must show your neighbour
as much love and respect as you show God's temple.
What is even more important
is that you should not live a life which is aimed at the sole
purpose of going to heaven. If that is the aim, then you a living
a life of utter selfishness.
The question of who is your
neighbour is quite simply shown in the Bible by the parable of
the Good Samaritan, where, any individual in a situation worse
off than yourself IS YOUR NEIGHBOUR. Every enemy is YOUR NEIGHBOUR.
If, you live a life of showing
respect to God's temple and loving your neighbour as much as
you love yourself, you have the principles which defy the rat
race.
How many individuals in this
world can claim to be of this nature.
Below is my tribute to this
man whom I was honoured to know.
Dear Findians,
It is with great sadness
that I have to inform you that Matti Reinikka, 84 year old
father of Annikki, passed away at 13.30 on Friday 9th February
2001, at the Oulu University Central Hospital.
Last Sunday, while cutting
wood to heat his home, he felt a severe chest pain which was
not relieved by his nitro tablets. He waited till Monday and
when the pain was not relieved, he ordered the ambulance and
was taken to hospital. He suffered a massive heart attack. He
was operated on and revived in the intensive care unit. He regained
consciousness and was progressing well. But he was unable to
regenerate all his important life functions.
They moved him to the normal
recovery ward on Thursday. He had a difficult night. His eldest
daughter, Annikki and her sister, Anneli, from Helsinki, sat
up with him all night on Thursday. They only left his side on
Friday morning when he was going into a deep calm sleep. On Friday
afternoon he passed away peacefully.
When he died, he was alone
in the care of some wonderful nurses. Being alerted by the nurses
of his critical state, three daughters and I rushed to the hospital
but arrived just a few minutes after he had passed away. His
body was still warm to the touch and his face was serenely calm
showing no struggle as he finally surrendered himself to his
Lord and supreme Master whom he had served diligently.
Matti Reinikka was a very
unusual, simple, wonderful and a great man. As his elder son
Erkki, a senior Government bureaucrat, told him on the phone
the evening prior to his demise,
"You have been
a wonderful example to all your children."
Erkki, and his son Markus,
had been to Oulu earlier as soon as they heard of the heart attack
and had seen him in the intensive care unit. Erkki had left only
after Matti regained consciousness.
Born in the interior of
north Finland, in the village of Puokio, in 1916, Matti did not
have the chance to go to school. He had to join the army to fight
in the war when he was just 20. He served on the front line throughout.
He served in all corners of Finland from St. Petersburg in the
South to Lapland in the north and from the eastern to the western
border. He saw his elder brother and constant companion die just
a few weeks before the end of the war. He recounted many of his
stories of his days in the frontline to his grandchildren. Bullets
had grazed his forehead. his back was full of metal shrapnel.
Soon after the war he found
his true meaning of life. He gave up the gun for the Holy Bible.
Details can be found in the book on the internet by Annikki
"...for the hour of his judgement is come:..."
He learnt the meaning of
the Book of Revelations in the Holy Bible and of Lord Jesus Christ
and His promise of the resurrection. He was a model of faith
to all his family of two sons and four daughters. He was, at
his death, the oldest member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church
of Oulu, membership of which in 1948 in a state dominated Lutheran
society, was a bold statement by itself. He was strict in his
belief in that he did not touch alcohol, cigarettes, coffee or
knowingly eat pork. He attended the church service faithfully
every Saturday only missing one when his health failed him.
He and I, had a common
habit of being up around 4:30 in the morning, when he would start
to read his Bible at the dining table in the kitchen in the quiet
of the house.
He became a carpenter after
the war. He served the City of Oulu diligently till his retirement
20 years ago. Even after his retirement he never stopped doing
his daily physical chores which many a younger man would have
been unable to perform. He collected wood, saw cutting it the
site and then hauling it home in the trailer attached to his
moped. Many nitros were consumed on the way. Once home, he would
stack it neatly. He never left a job once started, half done.
In winter, he brought the
required quantity to the cellar, chopped it in his own designed
cutting machine made from waste machinery parts, and ensured
that the house was kept warm. The drive of his cutting machine
was constructed from discarded washing machines.
In winter he cleared the
snow and kept all the house functioning normally. Besides keeping
his mopeds in good working order throughout the year, he always
had time to repair the cycles of family, friends and neighbours.
His cellar was a workshop for his cycle repairs and his work
stitching leather gloves and other knickknacks. Every few years
he would renew all the important parts of the building from windows
to the paint.
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Annikki recalls when the
house caught on fire in 1985, she woke him from his afternoon
sleep. He went straight to the source of the fire, but seeing
that he would be unable to put it out, he struggled to contain
the flames to the one room. The pressure in room was so great
that he could not shut the door. Once Annikki realised why he
was not following her from the house, she helped him push the
door shut, which helped save the house from going up in smoke.
He had built the family
home by himself in the mid-fifties. From day 1, he heated the
home and his sauna by collecting waste wood from the rubbish
dumps and factory sites. He never spent a penny in heating costs,
diligently collecting the wood right through the year so as to
see his family through the cold bitter winters. Summer time he
hired a field and grew his vegetables for winter. Once it became
to difficult to go to do his work in the fields, he started experimenting
at home. One year he grew his potatoes in a barrel.
He had a small rowing boat
and during the midsummer he would be off to fish and lay his
trap for catching fish. He would bring his catch home, sit in
the garden, clean and smoke the catch and share it with all those
who wanted to partake. Late summer he collected large quantities
of berries from the forest.
A few years ago the local
newspaper, Kaleva, ran a story about this unusual person.
He never asked anyone for
help. But, he was always ready to help anyone who came to him.
He loved our cat, Iitu.
He was so taken by her cleverness, that he even made a special
perch for her outside our upstairs window from where she could
survey the scenery around the garden. He loved to watch TV programs
about animals and was excited when he saw how clever they were.
For Annikki and me it was
a special form of help that he gave. In his small home, he provided
us with a roof over our head for over 16 years. They were
16 wonderful years as he showed only love and affection to the
two of us and our family. He helped us have a base to put
all our children on their own ways, never looking for anything
in return. There was no ulterior motive - just pure unadulterated
love.
Come Christmas, we would
join him for his Christmas meal on Christmas eve. He would make
sure that out of his small pension that we too had small presents
from him. On Christmas Day he would join us for our Christmas
dinner.
He greatly enjoyed and
appreciated Annikki's cakes and the unusual designs. For his
80th birthday he had asked Annikki to make everything ready for
him. He was sure that he could leave that responsibility to his
daughter whom he truly loved. (And he was anxious to eat her
cake - his nickname being "cake boy".)
He never said even one
unkind word to me during these last 17 years. In 17 years I have
never even seen a frown on his face. There was no barrier of
race, colour, religion or language (even though Matti did not
speak a word of any language but Finnish).
One of his greatest thrills
was to show me his finds from the dumping places from where he
secured wonderful items thrown away by a wasteful society. From
these discards he made new creations which he gave to his family
and any friends who happened to come along. He had enough material
to build a dozen solid cycles at any time.
My first winter coat, which
served me for almost 5 years, was a heavy black woolen one from
a person from his church who had died. For winter, I usually
had wonderful leather mittens made by Matti.
Matti was a true and unsung
environmentalist, far ahead of his time. He could never bear
to see waste of anything.
He loved all his family.
When his sisters living at Puolanka, about 100 km from Oulu,
were alive, he used to travel there on his moped to visit them
and take things for them, and to see that they were OK.
Now, only one, his youngest
sister, Laina, survives him in Oulu. Laina and her husband, Vilho,
have been wonderful friends of Matti.
Matti is survived by his
wife, Hilja, his eldest son Erkki and his one son, Annikki and
our family of two daughters, two sons and his only two grandchildren,
Samuel and Asha, daughter Aino, daughter Anneli and her two
sons, daughter Anja and her two daughters and one son, and his
youngest son, Eino with one son.
And he had one more
person who considered him as his substitute father - me.
But Matti Reinikka is asleep
now, waiting for his Heavenly Father to wake him on the day of
final resurrection.
In deep sorrow at the passing
of a truly wonderful person,
Yours sincerely,
Sushil Jacob Matthan
Torikatu 33 A 5
FIN-90100 Oulu,
Finland
The funeral took place on Saturday
the 24th of February. In truly fitting fashion, it was the first
funeral to take place in this church constructed about 8 years
ago. The church was packed to its full capacity with family,
church members and friends and cards from many relatives, friends
and especially his neighbours who could not attend the event..
Church elder, Yrjö Väyrynen, could hardly hold back
his tears when he spoke of this wonderful individual. The music
and singing by church members was moving.
I was greatly honoured to be
asked to be one of the pallbearers along with his two sons, one
grandson, his sister's husband and another son-in-law.
He was buried in the Oulu cemetery
in a space kept for him in an area reserved for war veterans.
The tributes paid to him after
the funeral at the memorial function were touching and demonstrated
in all simplicity that Matti Reinikka gave more to the world
than he took from it.
Matti Ilamari Reinikka, a simple carpenter from North Finland,
who fought on the frontline all through the 7 years of the war
from 1937 to 1944, found his Lord in 1948. After that traumatic
war time experience he lived a life which was so exemplary, that
I commemorate this issue to this man under whose roof I lived
for 16 wonderful years and who will live in my memory as the
finest individual that this earth has seen.
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