August• 2017 | 89READER’S DIGEST
about why they wanted – and needed
- to live in a seniors’ residence. By
December, three of them, including
Jonatan, were chosen.
BACK IN TAIMI TASKINEN’Sroom
in Rudolf Seniors’ Home, she wheels
her chair to the little round table cov-
ered with a plastic cloth and opens
her sketchbook. Leafing through the
pages, she considers studies she has
done of a barn from various perspec-
tives, simple black and white sketches
that bring the wooden structure to
life, surrounded by trees that appear
to move in an unseen wind.
Jonatan and Taimi have sat count-
less times at that little table, talk-
ing and drawing as if they’ve known
each other forever. On her wall is
his drawing of a sensuous woman
in early 20th-century evening dress;
caught in the yellow light of a street
lamp, she wears a long striped gown,
a stole and an elaborate feathered hat.
And besides the barn studies, Taimi’s
paintings include birds taking flight,
black shadows against a blue sky.
“I’m more open,” she said. “Jona
has inspired me to get out of my room
and talk to people, young and old.”
For his part, Jonatan, who now has
a full-time job as a pastry chef, loves
having someone living across the hall
who he is friends with. “In Finnish
culture, there is not usually a lot of
contact with neighbours,” he said.
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