Aino Kari, housemaid

“Heidi had just been born and Ruth came to me asking if I could help with household chores for a little while. I had just finished folk high school and was working as a shop assistant, and I didn’t really think I could leave, but I promised to come and help temporarily. This happened in 1911, and before I left Ainola, I had already lived there for a year until 1968. During that time, I had a temporary helper.
At the folk high school, I had developed a special enthusiasm for singing, and as a young girl, I would sing all day long while working. Professor [Kari referred to Sibelius as Professor after his 1916 appointment] came to visit me once and asked me not to sing anymore. But that day went by, and soon I forgot, and I started singing again. So one day, I heard a loud thud against the wall from another room… and then I realized it was him again. And then I remembered. I would sing outside and in the sauna and wherever I was.”

Read also Ainola residents: Aino Kari

Helmi Vainikainen, keittäjä

“First, coffee was at nine o’clock, then breakfast at noon, and then coffee again at two or three o’clock, and then dinner at five or six o’clock. And Professor would often stay up late and go to bed when we got up. When the children had their own compositions and made (…) So he couldn’t get any peace during the day, so he worked at night and said that thoughts have a much greater flight at night. (…) So when he sometimes said that he was going to stay up and put something out there, and yes, he would take something from the pantry himself and then cook, he had a coffee grinder that was brought from abroad and he cooked very strong coffee with it.”

Read also Ainola residents: Helmi Vainikainen