Ailie Maria Sutela was born on March 25, 1906 in South Thomaston, Maine. She was the eldest child of 10 in the family of Maria & Miko Sutela.
This was a classic immigrant family for the times; Maria had left Finland, by herself, at age 17. She spoke no English as she went through Ellis Island, as was the case of so many of our ancestors. She located in Rockland, Me into a Finnish enclave.
There Maria she met & married the charming Finn, Miko. Life was always to be hardscrabble; Miko had various jobs from butcher to peddler. He was always good with a laugh & a joke. Maria was made of sturdier stuff, with hard work her constant companion. They had a small farm on the outskirts of Rockland with 2 bedrooms up & 1 downstairs, with her early entrepreneurship, she took in local lumberjacks as boarders to supplement the income of the family. This was a job that entailed taking care if her husband, 10 children, numerous boarders & livestock. These were the days of the washboards, the wood stove & the garden.
Although this life seems unfathomable to us, Mama always told that her Mother retained a great sense of humor & there was a great deal of love in the house. Being the oldest, Mama was called on to work also, with the caring of her siblings & the farm chores. She especially remembers the milking of the cow on those incredibly cold Maine mornings. She stopped going to school during the 4th grade & until her time there she spoke only Finnish which she retained all of her life. She then was free to go with Miko & help him with his work.
Mama said that she used to envy the younger children, as it seemed that they got all the attention from her Mother. Mama also felt that she wasn’t beautiful as most of her 7 sisters were. But if you look at her early pictures, you wonder how she could have been so mistaken. At about 16 she began to work outside the home, in private homes. It was there that she developed her interest in food preparation.
Although her Mother was a good cook, Mama was a great one. She just had the taste buds & an artist’s eye. After a time Mama decided to go to New York City to work, there she honed her skills by working in wealthy homes & absorbing all she could. Some of her sisters followed & found similar work so on their nights off they loved to go to the Finnish dances. In NYC she met the handsome young Italian Lorenzo Eugenio Pasini and the rest is history....
This was a classic immigrant family for the times; Maria had left Finland, by herself, at age 17. She spoke no English as she went through Ellis Island, as was the case of so many of our ancestors. She located in Rockland, Me into a Finnish enclave.
There Maria she met & married the charming Finn, Miko. Life was always to be hardscrabble; Miko had various jobs from butcher to peddler. He was always good with a laugh & a joke. Maria was made of sturdier stuff, with hard work her constant companion. They had a small farm on the outskirts of Rockland with 2 bedrooms up & 1 downstairs, with her early entrepreneurship, she took in local lumberjacks as boarders to supplement the income of the family. This was a job that entailed taking care if her husband, 10 children, numerous boarders & livestock. These were the days of the washboards, the wood stove & the garden.
Although this life seems unfathomable to us, Mama always told that her Mother retained a great sense of humor & there was a great deal of love in the house. Being the oldest, Mama was called on to work also, with the caring of her siblings & the farm chores. She especially remembers the milking of the cow on those incredibly cold Maine mornings. She stopped going to school during the 4th grade & until her time there she spoke only Finnish which she retained all of her life. She then was free to go with Miko & help him with his work.
Mama said that she used to envy the younger children, as it seemed that they got all the attention from her Mother. Mama also felt that she wasn’t beautiful as most of her 7 sisters were. But if you look at her early pictures, you wonder how she could have been so mistaken. At about 16 she began to work outside the home, in private homes. It was there that she developed her interest in food preparation.
Although her Mother was a good cook, Mama was a great one. She just had the taste buds & an artist’s eye. After a time Mama decided to go to New York City to work, there she honed her skills by working in wealthy homes & absorbing all she could. Some of her sisters followed & found similar work so on their nights off they loved to go to the Finnish dances. In NYC she met the handsome young Italian Lorenzo Eugenio Pasini and the rest is history....
