Photographer unknown, ca. 1937 (Aino's daughter Leena hugging her mother)
When Aina turned thirteen her parents decided to send her to St Petersburg where her uncle Alexander Kutvonen had a couple of shops selling Finnish groceries. The aim was that Aina would learn the tricks of the trade and become a saleswoman. In 1905, Aina began working as a delivery girl for her uncle, and soon learned to speak fluent Russian. In St Petersburg she lived with her uncle's family and used to also act as a babysitter for my father Martti. In 1909 she returned to Helsinki and got a job as a salesgirl in a grocery shop. Then a leather wholesaler hired her as a sales representative. Her Russian language skills allowed her to pursue a career as a procurer of Russian grain. From 1912 onwards, she also worked as a saleswoman in Tampereen Jalkinekauppa (Tampere shoe shop) in Helsinki. In 1918, she founded a shoe store named Oiva. In 1920 she married Akseli Järvinen and changed her first name to Aino. As the owners of the shoe shop were getting old, they offered the shop for Aino to buy. Aino bought the shop with her husband in 1922 and from there began Aino's 56-year career as a shoe retailer. The name of the company was shortened to Tampereen Jalkine and eventually it had 22 stores in Finland and a wholesale business. She was widowed in 1949, after which she continued to run the business alone. She had a lot of ideas to develop the shoe business and she pursued them with vigour. Aino was the first female recipient of the Finnish honorary title of kauppaneuvos. Aino was my godmother.