n a sunny, crisp morning in May 2008, I traveled by bus to Sipoo, a town east of Helsinki, to interview Anna. She lived in a middle-class residen-tial area, in a large yellow duplex amid a yard with a number of trees and flower beds, as well as a gazebo. Slightly nervous, as always when meeting new interviewees, I rang her doorbell, and Anna came to the door. She was a diminutive woman in her mid-eighties with short gray hair, wearing stylish clothes, eye shadow, and quite a lot of jewelry – not your typical Finnish granny! She greeted me warmly, took my coat, and ushered me in.Anna’s apartment was impeccably tidy. The living room was domi-nated by beautiful antique furniture and a wall-to-wall bookshelf filled with books. In every room stood dressers and side tables with countless ornaments, flower arrangements, photos of loved ones, and small icons. More icons, photos, and paintings hung on the walls. After giving me a tour of the apartment, Anna brought me to the dining room where she had set the table for two. She served me coffee with salmon sandwiches and Karelian pasties, both delicious. She did not eat any herself, however; instead, she sipped her coffee and chatted about her life and family.She told me how, the very next day after she was born, her father’s mother had taken her to the sauna and washed her with water from nearby Lake Ladoga