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EESTI ELU reedel, 23. septembril 2022 — Friday, September 23, 2022
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Aeg – Aegna Remembering Aimi Zechanowitsch (1935–2022) Some ten years ago, in early spring, I decided to visit the island of Aegna. It was a Sunday, but not a sunny day; rain was drizzling down. When I came to the Kala har bour in Tallinn, it turned out the ship I wanted to travel on was not sailing: the tourist season had not yet started. But as there was a school class heading for the island, I was allowed to join them. The ship left us at the island, and I understood it would come back in five hours. The children and teachers seemed to know where to go to. I had no idea. I walked around the island hoping to find a place to shelter, but there seemed to be nothing, apart from some empty holiday homes and dilapidated buildings. It had been different once, before the Soviet occupation. Aimi Zechanowitsch wrote to me about her early childhood years on Aegna, where her father was stationed as an offi cer. She wrote: In my time there were over 300 naval personnel of various ranks. There was also a centre for naval recruits. There was the Headquarters, where, for example, my father worked. For officers and their families, there was the Officer’s Casino, a sort of social centre. I remember it vaguely. For the recruits there was also a social centre, clubs, bands, sports etc. There was a school, a store (I remember, there I could get my favourite cake, Alexander cake); there was even a railway to get to the port. Aimi explained to me that the reason why I almost saw nothing on my visit to Aegna was that the Soviets had de stroyed everything in 1941. They obviously did “a good job”, so she wrote. In my time the forests also had lovely deer
that were brought to the island. God knows what happened to them. I met Aimi only a few times in Toronto, but we correspond ed for several years. She parti cipated in the film I made about Geislingen, in which she talked about her fond memories of the town where she lived a few years after having led a gypsy’s life, as she described it. Aimi’s family had to leave Aegna when the Soviets occu pied Estonia. They went to Tallinn and then moved further to other places within Estonia. Aimi wrote me how her father had been in three armies within one year: Estonian, Soviet and German. In the autumn of 1944 Aimi and her mother fled the country, not knowing where her father was, as there was no time to wait for news. In Germany they ended up in Murnau, working on a farm. Aimi had a good time there, even though at first the people didn’t like to see the refugees coming, and in the end, they were happy they left: By the summer Estonian women started to wear shorts, far shorter than the Bavarian women and the Estonians were then seen as a scandalous crowd of people. So when they moved out, the priest went around and sprinkled holy water on all the farms where these scandalous Estonian women had lived and he held a special mass in the church to thank God that all the evil ones had
Anne Rungi competed in the Tennis Supersenior World Championships held in Mallorca, Spain in October, 2021. She is a top senior player in Canada. Recently Anne won Ladies Doubles75 at Ontario Provincials held at the Toronto Boulevard Club Aug. 13, 2022, and also the National Ladies Doubles75 Championship held in Vancouver Aug 26, 2022! Her current Senior Tennis Canada Ranking #1 Ladies Doubles 75 & #5 in singles! Photo: Private collection
Marcus Kolga, president of the Central and Eastern European Council, at the opening of the recent Ukrainian Festival in Toronto, reflects on the encouraging news of Ukraine’s successes in its defense of freedom and Western democracy. Photo: Myroslava Oleksiuk
A photo exhibition of the travesty in Ukraine opened at Tartu College recently, with a portion of it visible for viewing outside on busy Bloor Street. Photo: Kai Kiilaspea
gone. Nonetheless Murnau, only eight kilometres away from the Alps, remained her favourite place on the earth till the end. From Murnau Aimi and her mother went to Geislingen. This is where Aimi experienced real peace for the first time and she described the place as worryfree for her as a child. She loved the summer camps, she loved the theatre, but most of all the life there: no cars, end less ballgames outside, all friends nearby, no rich, no poor, everyone the same. Aimi: To think back, for most of us our “social” life was fabulous. To think of the young in Canada today, I almost shudder. Isolated by their own choice, in their rooms with their iPhone, computers etc.; their “social life” consisted of texting or e-mailing, glued to their little hand-held gadgets! How much joy can that bring? Her worries started in Australia where Aimi and her mother emigrated to at the end of the ‘forties and where her mother could only earn very little money, so Aimi thought she would not be able to con tinue her schooling, and would have to look for work instead.
However, her stepfather made sure she could go to school and later she went to teacher’s college. Aimi loved to travel. After she completed her studies, she went to work as a teacher in Australia, but two years later she had the chance to go to Canada and travel around the country. She had planned to work one year as a teacher in Montreal to earn the money which would allow her to travel further to England. But that year, in 1961, they started to build the Berlin wall and it seemed that it was not the right time to go to Europe. She stayed in Montreal where she met her future husband, George Zechanowitsch. She remained in Canada, but later travelled a lot. Aimi was proud to say that she had visited 108 countries. In the past years less travel was possible as Aimi’s mobility lessened. She would have loved to return to Murnau and Geislingen, but her lousy legs prevented her from going. Nevertheless she concluded: I’m glad, that I, at least, did my travelling etc. when I could, no particular regrets now. Corona made things worse physically, because the swim
ming pool where Aimi could exercise was closed, but also mentally, because her best friend, with whom she had made so many travels suddenly passed away. Well, my generation is reaching the “goodbye years”, nothing one can do about it. She tried not to be sentimental, but wrote that it had affected her more than she could admit. It remained diffi cult for her, though there were others: she still always seemed to care and worry about. When I was on Aegna I made sure I was well ahead of time before the boat arrived, as I didn’t know what to do on the island if I missed it. But with Aimi I was too late. Though I knew her health was not as it used to be, I thought there would be time. Last spring, I could finally travel to the US, but instead of extending my travel to Canada, as was the ini tial plan, I decided to postpone my travel to Canada till autumn. “Bon voyage!” were the last words of the many e-mails Aimi wrote to me, as I was heading for another travel destination. And thus all that is left for me to say is Bon voyage, dear Aimi. HELGA MERITS
