Information and personal details and facts of Peter Olavi Leppanen

We would like to welcome you all here this afternoon to remember the life of our dear friend Peter.

My name is Kathy Kavanagh. Lindy asked me to read the eulogy, as we are very long- standing friends and we together met Peter for the first time on New Year's Eve about ten years ago.

Peter was born in Finland on June 30, 1940, at the height of the Second World War.

Finland was at war with Russia. The city the family lived in was only 3 kilometres from the border of Russia. You could say they literally lived on what we would call the Western Front.

As a young boy, Peter could remember the Russian planes going across the skies sending bombs down on his homeland. These early childhood experiences no doubt helped reinforce in him a Finnish trait taught by his parents. It is called SISU. Roughly translated, it means " blind determination to win at all costs...''

I would ask you to try and remember this meaning, as we will refer to this "SISU'' again.

In 1947, Peter at the age of 7 had to start sharing life with a new brother Timo. Then they both had to learn some more sharing as another brother, Esa, was born in 1951 .

Timo recalls that this was quite a challenge. He can remember Peter getting a new pair of shoes. So what do brothers do? Timo pee-ed on these shoes to remind Peter that he had to share!

Like any young boy, Peter was adventurous. He loved to fish, hunt and snow ski. His record for the big downhill ski jump was about 30 metres. He was always outdoors enjoying life to the full.

National Service saw Peter starting training at the age of 16 to fight another war just like his father. But his parents had other ideas.

They left Finland in the late 1950s to find another country where they could find peace, and leave behind the cold war of Europe. They did not want their sons to have to fight and die, like so many of Peter's uncles and family and friends, who had lost their lives in defence of their beloved homeland.

By this stage Peter also, had other plans. He joined the merchant navy and sailed the world. For some years Peter visited ports all around Europe and the Middle East. His ship also took him to North and South America. He even visited the Amazon jungle when the ship went to pick up a load of bananas. During one such visit, he is known to have visited Rio di Janeiro, and some of us think he was never the same afterwards. He always wanted to return to Rio di Janeiro and visit again the city he explored as a young man.

If his cancer had not spread, we are sure he would have been there this year.

Unlike most New Australians who arrived by boat, Peter the adventurer didn't come into the country on a low cost boat ticket. He arrived instead by PLANE, much to the amusement of his family. You must remember that in l960 commercial, aviation was really in its early stages. This grand entrance seemed to set the scene for the rest of Peter's life.

He never planned to settle in Australia with his family - he just wanted to visit this new land and to continue exploring the world by sea. However, within a short time, he was married, and in the 60s had two children Tom and Leo. This put a stop to his ambitions for overseas travel.

So what does a man do when he can't travel overseas? He MOVES INTERSTATE instead. The family lived in various parts of the country such as Wollongong in NSW, Whyalla in SA, Fremantle in WA and Mt Isa in this state. He even crossed the Nullarbor in the dirt in an old HC Holden without air conditioning - to name just one of their travels. Finally they settled and bought a family home in Canberra.

It was during this time that he found a new passion - building. Firstly, houses. Literally hundreds of houses, with his business partner. Then buildings. Did you see the multi- storey unit complex, adjacent to this building, as you walked in? This was but one of his many and varied building projects.

The one thing we all knew about Peter is that he never was conservative. Peter always took risks which saw him win or lose in big fashion. At the height of the good times, he oversaw multi-million dollar projects, employed l 50 men, and drove Mercedes cars and large four wheel drives. He traveled the world as a symbol of his success in the industry.

Some count success by the money. But we are beginning to think Peter counted it by lengths of plywood formwork. When he moved to the Gold Coast from Canberra he bought with him 20 semi-trailer loads of this formwork. And at the height of the business, he had supermarket floors of the stuff around him. Formwork brought success and meaning to his life.

Even his dress was not conservative. Picture this! - A black Mercedes pulls up at Jupiter's Casino, or the local golf club, or the Gold Coast shotgun club. These were all regular haunts of Peter at various times. And out of the Mercedes comes Peter with white shoes, long white socks, white shorts and white shirt. Can we say - in the tradition of the "white shoe brigade'' of the Gold Coast.

As he was not conservative in life, we thought we would give him a risky send-off as well. So today the funeral directors will get a taste of Peter's fashion sense when they see that he is being cremated in his beloved crushed white silk suit and white shoes. (Please wear sunglasses!) He is also wearing a beanie, made by Allison.

One Monday Peter was at a job site full with numerous Finnish formworkers. They loved a drink and loved to fish. They all commented on the new cars that Peter and his work partner Pekka had bought. Peter and Pekka always bought the same model of car. The same colour and the same accessories.

So again imagine, two brand new 4 wheel drives parked together side by side. One is dirty from the dust and mud and the weekend fishing trip. The other looked spotless as though it was straight off the showroom floor. That night Peter asked Leo never to wash his car again - especially not if Peter had to go to work the next day.

But good times and bad times will always affect the building industry. The bad times saw him lose the lot and the new Mercedes had to be traded in on an old Ford ute. It was a humbling experience for many, but not for people like Peter who had that Finnish determination called SISU.

Peter's love of life and blind determination helped him to cope during those dark times. So did the odd schooner of VB and the good bottle of RED.

This brings us to another passion that most Finns share. Alcohol.

There is not enough time to relate all the drinking stories. Suffice to say there are many.
One such event was when Peter and family, and Esa and family, were in SA visiting Timo and family. All the boys had consumed quite a few ales. Then Peter decided to order the last round, which was a schooner of Vodka. Tim was the nominated driver, only because he was able to stand. So he began the drive to take the boys home.

Someone saw a diesel locomotive coming down the local railway line. So what does Peter do? He took TIM'S ute - perhaps in retaliation for Tim pee-ing on his shoes at an early age. He proceeded to drive the ute right over the railway line, and stalled the motor in order to block the diesel locomotive. It worked. Much laughter and fun was had by all - except the sober wives on the day. The driver of the loco must have had a sense of humor and he recognised the state of the brothers and the ute was eventually moved out of the way. No harm - only one big hangover.

We don't recommend you do this at home. Peter came home after one overseas trip and his luggage was full of bottles. The limit was one litre at that time, and we believe he had eight litres. When asked to declare the alcohol he said he had none. The whole time you could hear the eight bottles clinking loudly as he walked through the customs hall.

We cannot let this occasion go without mentioning a few stories about fishing. Peter loved trout fishing. His kids would always find it strange, how their dad could come home with anywhere up to 30 trout after an overnight fishing trip. Years later you discover that Peter had apparently forgot to read his fishing license which advised that --- 'commercial fishing nets and dynamite are not to be used in National Parks".

On another trip, Peter rolled the brand new work ute and lost the couple of trout out of the back. We are not sure what caused the accident -- whether it was the road or the couple of cartons of ''bait'' they had on the back of the ute.

Many people feel motion sickness. Not Peter. On one of his commercial fishing trips they had a bunch of the lads out at sea on a big swell. Some of the boys were assisting the fishing by vomiting uncontrollably over the side of the boat. Peter had been eating his egg sandwiches in front of the boys. Someone caught a tuna and Peter proceeded to eat the eyes in front of the boys as well. Apparently, due to the good burly, a lot of fish were caught that day.

Besides fishing, he was a connoisseur of food. At one time Peter and his brothers were at a favourite haunt, the Batemans Bay Soldiers Club. They ordered chili beef and they complained it was not hot and spicy enough. So they got another serve of chili beef and again, it was not hot enough for them. So third time lucky - after much complaining they got their hot chili beef. Even the chef had to come out of the kitchen to watch the spectacle unfolding before the eyes of everyone in the restaurant.

You know it's hot when even the chef wants to see you eat the extra hot chili beef. The boys finally complemented the chef after no doubt trying to put the fire out of their mouths. Suffice it to say, we won't speak about the morning after.

Peter was not averse to pain. He learnt from a very early age in life how to handle severe pain. At around 6 years, Esa recalls hearing Peter screaming in pain in his bedroom. His mother was by his side. Peter was having a BOIL squeezed out of his backside. Not a pretty sight.

But for a 6 year old to see his big brother in pain, it was not good. Esa wanted to impart his 6 year old wisdom to his brother to make it all better. Esa came up to Peter, who had his strides down and was flat out on the bed. Meanwhile their mother was squeezing Peter's bum so hard. And Esa said, ''Don't you worry, the pain will go away, when you die!''

Peter, still in agony from having his buttocks squeezed, was crying in laughter, and their mother was also laughing hysterically, unable to inflict any more pain due to the words of wisdom from Esa. So the moral of the story is that pain is offset by laughter. And now we here can also laugh, because Peter is no longer in any pain.

We all know that Peter liked a good time. And his idea of a good time was to dance. Tim called him the CHA CHA MAN. This leads us to what happened next in Peter's life. We can only thank the organizers of the dance evening because they insisted that all in attendance were to dress in Black Tie. This is where Peter met Lindy after asking her for a dance.

Things blossomed along and Peter and Lindy became good friends. Together they toured the wineries around Barossa in South Australia. They made their way up to the centre of the Northern Territory. And they were regulars at the Tamworth Country Music Festival. They also traveled overseas to New York and through America.

There is a saying that all good things come to an end some time. Not true for Peter.

At the age of 60 he suffered a serious stroke which left him permanently paralysed. While being taken to hospital, he told Tom and the ambulance to get his nail bag and belt, as he was going to be late for work. Again, that Finnish determination SISU. He was determined to get his life back. However, he would spend the next three months in hospital trying to get movement back to his leg and arm, which were badly paralysed.

To some it would be the end of their life. But for Peter it was just a new chapter in life...another risky adventure with no certain future. He had a brain, a phone and contacts. With his son Tom - who played an instrumental role in helping the business to . get started again - Peter had grand plans of another formwork company. He planned to start out small in the Wynnum area.

Many people found it remarkable that a man who could not walk properly or hold a hammer, could run any building business. Oftentimes, he was so bad he could not even set foot on the site, but he always wanted to be part of the formwork crew.

Peter suffered from OCFD. And as we speak, there are certain members of the community lobbying the government for funding to find the cure for this debilitating condition. Sadly there is no known cure at present... OCFD stands for Obsessive Compulsive Formwork Disorder. It ruled Peter's life. His nirvana or 'paradise' was formwork and form ply.

This compulsive behaviour, as we call it, or passion for formwork, saw him again do anything to get more and more formwork material, and more and more work. Most people would consider retirement, and rule out more stress in their lives. As stressful and difficult as it was, Peter never lived his life waiting for something to happen. He made it happen.

Even when he was sick here at Wynnum hospital, he had not given up. He was making plans to get another car after the ute was sold. He would often ask many people for their opinion about the various models, and he would get people searching for this car. Even when the morphine took over the pain, you could hear him mumbling about work and his tape measure. Most people would be resigned to death but Peter had not time for that. He was planning to start another new business and continue to work in his beloved profession of formwork.

Last Xmas Lindy and Peter drove down to visit his brother Esa and Sister in law Tuula in Batemans Bay. On the way they stopped with Leo and Susan in Ulladulla, where they were staying. Peter could not walk more than 10 metres and could not even walk down the driveway. But he was not willing to show weakness and insisted on personally driving through.
This an - example of his drive and determination which took him through life.

This is SISU - the Finnish way.

Conclusion:

Today we take the time to thank the people who have helped Peter through the difficult times and sickness that he suffered.

Lindy was there every day for him. We thank her for her tireless efforts to help Peter and the great effort she made to care for him over the years. Especially over the last three months in hospital. Something which Peter told everyone at the hospital about, and all those who visited him.

We also wish to thank the wonderful staff at the hospital, who listened to his stories of travel and grandeur. And during the difficult times, the staff handled his strong will with great care and compassion.

The family wish to thank all who visited and cared for Peter, and who helped him so much. The family also thanks all those in attendance today who shared some part of his life.

We now send him off, who knows, to Rio di Janeiro.

This now concludes the memorial service. The theme song you next hear will be by Sibelius, the famous Finnish composer... .. .... ... ...