Host Heidi Willman remembers her mother’s death in the Kaksinaista podcast. His mother’s funeral was held on Willman’s 10th birthday.
Heidi Willman talks about her mother’s death in the Kaksinaista podcast. Inka Soveri
Presenter and former Miss Finland Heidi Willman lost his mother when he was only nine years old.
Willman tells about the difficult moments of his and Sara Perttunen Two women on the podcast.
Willman’s mother had breast cancer for six years.
In the podcast, Willman recalls the 1991 May Day masquerade he attended with his brother. Their mother was already in the hospital.
– I only remember that we were there at school. In the middle of the class, when there were some May Day parties and carnivals going on, the classroom door opens. My father comes in the middle of class to interrupt it and (says) “Heidi, now you have to go home,” Willman says in the podcast.
– Then we went home, and the flag was at half mast. I recognized from the car that the grandparents were there. At that point, the father said that now the mother has passed away, he continues.
Willman describes her mother as a loved person. Soon the family’s home was filled with flowers and resembled a flower shop. The sight has stuck on Willman’s retinas.
In the episode, Willman also speaks warmly of his father, who continued his daily life with the children in the midst of grief.
The funeral was held on Willman’s 10th birthday. One photo from the funeral has stuck in Willman’s mind.
– One picture is one where me, my brother and father are at my mother’s grave. Those flowers, wreaths and all are probably still two or three meters around the grave, Willman describes.
– In the picture, I have a birthday present in my hand and we are crying on it at my mother’s grave. Someone had remembered my birthday in the midst of all that horror, says Willman.
Willman herself was diagnosed with breast cancer in the summer of 2016. With the disease, she had both breasts and ovaries removed.
– It was clear to me that health would be the most important thing. I was ready to endure the symptoms, as long as I stayed healthy, Willman told Iltalehti in an interview in 2022.