Hilkka Ahti’s recent biography also makes revelations about her late spouse.
Matti and Hilkka Ahde at the opening of the Diet in 2017. JUHA RAHKONEN
Hilkka Riikonen was a 19-year-old star of competitive rhythmic gymnastics after marrying a young MP, Matti Ahti.
Handsome Demari interested Hilkka even before the two had even met. The young woman cut out Ahti’s picture from the magazine and stuck it on the wall of her room. She had a fateful feeling that she would marry that man.
In the spring of 1976, Matti was already the chairman of the SDP’s parliamentary group. However, she fell ill with angina and watched the rhythmic gymnastics competitions on TV while resting. Attention was drawn to Hilka.
Matti was 12 years older than Hilkka. It didn’t mean anything though. Matti asked Hilkka on a date. However, Matti called Hilka in other ways: to congratulate TUL’s gymnasts on their double victory in the World Championships.
Dates were arranged in parliament. From there we continued to the opera, where Matti had booked the tickets. The software had by Charles Gounod Faust. After that we ate in the Chapel.
Hilkka ordered his delicacy, pepper steak. For dessert, he had nut pudding. After a couple of spoonfuls, Matti put the portion aside and told Hilka that it was not worth eating more for such a round-cheeked girl.
Hilkka considered such a collision to be profane. Later, he learned that Matti always told the other honestly what he thought.
However, the first date night ended romantically when Matti sang to Hilka Rauli Badding Somerjoen made famous by the song I get the last dance.
Hilkka was a sold woman.
He had bad experiences with the opposite sex. A man from a familiar family had tried to rape her when she was 15 years old.
Hilka had also had a difficult relationship with an older man who suffered from an alcohol problem.
Matti was from another country. He was socially aware and was fond of opera, literature and sports. Matti was also handsome and charismatic.
However, he set strict criteria for his future wife. Among other things, the woman had to be a virgin. Hilkka thought her chances were gone, after all she had had boyfriends before Matt.
However, Matti was so in love that he gave up his old-fashioned criteria and proposed to Hilkka.
Hilka’s mother thought her daughter was too young to commit and broke up for almost six months. He would have wished Hilka a different kind of future.
Hilkka had dreamed of becoming an actress and of going to theater school. The dream remained:
– I realized that due to the irregular working hours, I cannot be an actress and the wife of a career politician, Hilkka recalls in her recent biography.
The rhythmic gymnastics teacher’s studies in Moscow were also under consideration.
Hilka’s mother, outraged by the plans to get married, announced that she would end her day the moment the wedding was celebrated.
Hilkka and Matti were married in the Oulu Cathedral on January 1, 1977. Mother reluctantly agreed to participate in the wedding and did not decide on her days.
Hilkka was already pregnant, although she didn’t know it at the time.
Kerttu’s mother’s heart melted when Hilka and Mati’s firstborn, Timo, was born. She later did everything she could so that Hilkka, as a mother of three children, could support her husband. Matis became Kertu’s beloved son-in-law, whom Kertu defended even in difficult moments.
Hilkka, on the other hand, acted as her mother’s caregiver in her last years.
Liisa Talvitie: Hilkka Ahde – Sinisilmäinen optimisti (Docendo) was published on April 20.