The recent biography of the beloved singer also goes through heavy memories.
Katri Helena and Timo Kalaoja were not only a married couple but also musical colleagues. Keijo Koko
Katri Helena met her second husband, Timo Kalaojan, midsummer 1973 on Särkä’s stage at Punkalaitum. Kalaoja came to take care of the sick keyboard player.
The relationship progressed quickly, they got married and the family grew with three children.
In June 1988, however, Timo unexpectedly died.
Katri Helena was at a gig in Keurusellä, when Timo hopped onto the gig bus, white as white with sweat on his face.
– Call an ambulance. Now something is happening, Timo said.
Katri called.
– My hands are tingling. I miss them, Timo moaned.
In her recent biography, Katri Helena tells how the seconds felt like hours. Timo was so touched that he could not speak. Katri wiped the sweat from her husband’s face and stroked him.
– I tried to breathe calmly, even though fear was tearing my heart apart, the singer recalls.
The heart stopped
When the ambulance came, the paramedics lifted Timo on a stretcher into the back of the car and gave him electric shocks.
Katri Helena was seated in the front with the driver and nurse.
– Behind the windows of the ambulance, the lake opening on both sides of the road glowed in the summer evening light, but my world was dark with fear. It was less than ten kilometers to the health station, and half way there the ambulance’s alarm whistle started to sound. The expression of the nurse sitting next to me changed. Other traffic gave way when we drove with flashing lights to the Keuruu health center’s yard, Katri Helena recalls.
– The heart stopped, someone said.
The nurses carried Timo in through the glass doors of the first aid on a stretcher to receive more electric shocks.
Katri Helena sat in the corridor behind the closed door and silently shouted:
– Do not go yet! We still have life ahead of us! Do not leave!
However, Timo left. He died in hospital.
A promise to Timo
The nurses put Timo’s body on the table. A gauze covering his mouth was wrapped around Timo’s face. Then the body was moved on a metal tray to the refrigerator compartment and the compartment door was closed.
– I watched how the person, with whom I had talked about vacation, rest and joint plans in the afternoon, was being prepared for the journey towards the mortuary, the coffin and the grave, Katri Helena recalls.
– I only spoke to Timo, in my mind, as if he might still hear me. ‘Do not worry. I will take care of the children and this life. Thank you for being with me. I practice playing the guitar. I can go to gigs alone and accompany myself on the guitar. Yes, we can manage with the children. We’ll be fine.’
In 2009, Katri Helena also lost her son Johnwho died at the age of 33 from an illness.
Elina Hirvonen: Katri Helena, singer (Johnny Kniga) appeared on April 13.