Liina Raud says karma returned her youthful wrongs

Liina Raud told ERR’s Vikerraadio that she would make different and better decisions if she could look back on her life, saying she had painfully received back through karma everything she had done to others in her youth.

Raud said those choices had contributed to her becoming an immigrant and a single mother. She is currently working in the United States, where she said building a career had been very difficult because she preferred independent work and projects to a fixed schedule.

“Working there is brutal, nevertheless,” Raud said. Her wish to find a place for herself in the United States currently outweighs the option of returning to Estonia for an easier life.

Raud’s mother, Juta Vahter, said she did not consider it tragic that her daughter and grandchildren lived far away. She has visited them in the United States and said modern means of communication made it possible to stay in touch.

Vahter is the only grandmother of Raud’s children, Mirjam and Joosep. Raud said she had a special bond with both children but regretted that they did not speak Estonian well enough for deeper conversations. Mirjam plays the cello and dances, while Joosep enjoys performing. Raud said Joosep was more like his father, Mihkel, while Mirjam resembled her mother.

Raud said her mother and father had maintained a marriage in which they lived apart during the week: her father worked in Tallinn and returned home every weekend, spending all his free time with the family. Raud also spoke about her brother, who is nine years older and has influenced her significantly. He first worked in information technology and later established a renewable energy company.

Vahter recalled that she had been rebellious as a child and often got into trouble. Her parents separated when she was three, after which her mother remarried. Vahter lived with her grandmother for a time and felt abandoned because her siblings were already living with their mother and stepfather.

She said her stepfather had nevertheless been a kind and caring person who supported her mother and the children. Raud described her mother as someone who had overcome difficulties without becoming bitter and said the sense of security in which she and her brother grew up was relatively rare today.

Mother decided to marry on their first evening

Vahter said she had not known what to do after finishing school. She wanted to study dairy science at the Estonian Academy of Agriculture, following her father, who had worked at a dairy, but failed the physics entrance exam. She then found work at a leather footwear factory, which she described as a school of life. Road construction later became an important part of her career.

Vahter said she met her future husband at a party and that they decided to marry on their very first evening because they immediately got along well. She is 17 years younger than her husband. They later discovered that they came from neighbouring villages.

According to Vahter, Raud’s birth had been planned four years earlier, although Raud did not arrive immediately.