Esko Eerikäinen was only sent to Finland alone at the age of 10.
Esko Eerikäinen remembers his life in Colombia that he was full of fear. Pink bröijer
Radio presenter Esko Eerikäinen opens up from the painful experiences of his childhood Light in the dark in the recent episode of the podcast.
Eerikäinen says he was sent alone from Colombia to Finland at the age of 10, and he did not speak a word Finnish.
The decision was made by the father of the family, who wanted to protect his son from Colombia’s unrest.
– Fear was constantly present in everyday life, he remembers the insecurity of his country of birth.
Eerikäinen was placed in a foster family in Kuopio. He says the event was a tragedy that shakes the whole family.
“After all, it was a huge tragedy in my life, though Dad certainly meant good,” he says.
At first, the intention was that the family would soon come to Finland. However, this did not happen and years passed without any information about their result. The only way to keep in touch was through letters.
– Then I realized that they might not come, Eerikäinen recalls.
A couple of years after moving to Finland, his father died of a heart attack in Colombia. Eerikäinen never saw his father anymore after moving. He received a sad news from the father of the foster family the next day.
– I remember we went skiing after that and I just remember crying there. It was really severe frost and the tears frozen.
In the summer of the same year, after the death of his father, he traveled to Colombia to meet his family. Eerikäinen hoped that he could stay with them permanently, but the mother of the family rejected the idea.
– Mom said we can’t take you here, otherwise all this sacrifice has been useless.
According to Eerikäinen, another departure from Colombia was even heavier than the first.
-I was a 12-year-old child at the time. I was wondering why I don’t want home.
Mom and sister moved to Finland four years after Eerikäinen. By that time, he was already a teenager who had had to cope with the heaviest phase of his life alone.
Eerikäinen has previously stated in public that his childhood experiences still affect him today. He has dealt with them in adulthood in therapy.