My great great grandmother, Susana Wesiluoma Pesola was born in Finland and immigrated to the U.S. in the late 1800s. She was very highly respected, for her determined spirit and heart of compassion empowered her family and her community.
I think of her often and know that she led me here, back to her homeland.
I honor her determination. I honor her deep love. May her legacy live on within me.
I am grateful for the gift of getting to know more about her, and that gift has been something I have recently received.
For so many years, the only things I knew about her were that she came from Finland, she had many children, and in 1910, she gave birth to her last child. That precious infant lived. Susana did not. Her older children would tell years later of how they washed the blood-soaked mattress in the river.
Today I advocate for access to birth control, for women to be fully honored and listened to by medical and mental health professionals, for women to be completely respected and to have full control when it comes to decisions regarding their bodies, minds, and souls.
I write and speak in honor of Susana. The love within her soul still empowers deep love within me.
As she welcomes me into her homeland, as I rest in the awareness of her presence and the peacefulness of her words, I choose in gratitude, to write about what I have learned from her.
Determination is an expression of love and a symbol of gratitude for love received. I will not give up on my goals, for I deeply love my husband, for I deeply love myself.
Do what you can with what you have. Susana made her children feel loved and cherished. Through something even as simple as taking in boarders and selling chickens, she showed her independent spirit, her desire to provide for her family. She did not have a lot, but she refused to limit herself.
Susana is one of many women who have inspired my fighting spirit, my determination, the deep love I have for my family and my friends, the ever-growing courage rooted in my decision to truly love and trust myself.
To witness the Divine Feminine within my female ancestors, within my mother, within myself is to witness the embodiment of love itself.
I am grateful.
I would love to know: Who is a woman who inspires you this International Women’s Day?
Thank you so much for supporting my work.
Have a wonderful day,
Susannah
I love this. I always think of my grandmother and what she went through to provide for us. We not only have generational trauma, we also have generational greatness.
What a beautiful tribute to your great great grandma, Susie! :) To answer your question, the woman who I'm most inspired by is my mom. She wasn't International, born & raised in Alabama, but she was a tough little (5') POWERHOUSE! :D