Actress Lena Meriläinen and daughter Veera tell Me Naiset magazine about their mother-daughter relationship and life stages.
Lena Meriläinen Pete Anikari
Actress Lena Meriläinen was 21 years old when she had her daughter Veeran. The pregnancy was a shock, Lena, 71, says For Me Naiset magazine.
Lena’s studies were unfinished, but she and her then-spouse decided to have a child. The support of my spouse and family made me believe that everything would be alright.
Lena’s marriage ended in divorce when Veera was 7 years old. The actor working at the Turku City Theater had developed a romance with the director Olli Tola. Olli was also married at the time.
– We tried until the end to fight back and end the relationship, but we couldn’t do anything. We knew that the explosion would happen at some point, Lena tells Me Nais.
Both left their unions and received job offers from Tampere. The Veera daughter stayed in Turku with her father.
– It was obvious that Veera would stay with her father. It hurt, but I felt that there were no options. I was the one who broke up the family and left, says Lena.
Veera Eirola-Gustafsson, 51, tells the magazine that she misses her mother terribly and misses wearing her mother’s clothes. When the daughter visited Tampere, the mother relieved her bad conscience and wanted to spoil her daughter. Veera quickly became close to Olli and his daughter.
Lena previously also told Iltalehti about her family relationships. He describes his family as a small family, because nowadays even his grandchildren have offspring.
According to Lena, there has been a strong culture of speaking in the family and she tries to nurture that in her own family.
– I’m trying to carry on my mother’s and father’s legacy in that we take care of each other and have a lot to do. If there are difficult issues, we would try to talk about them and open up confidentially in the family circle.
Lena also talked about her long relationship, the secret of which she considers persistence and humor.
– Olli is especially good at humor and I’m hard to laugh at. It’s a pretty good combination, he stated.
