Sylvia Rintala

My sincere condolences to the Luoma family. I shall always remember Sylvia for her soft but stern voice and big, wonderful laugh. My Grandparents, Matt & Flossie Kujala, would visit with Sylvia, Oliver and Waino in their home in Fox and they would come over to our place across the highway there in Fox to visit with us. She was always so kind. I would only drink coffee at two places but never at home. Sylvia's was one of these places. She always had Finnbread or some delicious goodies to serve. In my later years in Fox I used to go over and play cribbage with Sylvia and Waino. Then afterward Waino would play music for us. Sylvia taught me some Finnish words and showed me how her weaving loom worked. after I left home I asked her to make me a few rugs for my dorm floor when I was in the military. Sylvia always had a large garden and loved all the nature around her. I remember when Grandma and I went with her to pick chokecherries one summer over on Red Lodge and Willow Creek. They both made delicious chokecherry syrup. After Oliver passed away Sylvia got more involved with her religious beliefs. She and John Clark could be found worshiping at her place from time to time. John's son, Clint, and I were in the same grade at RLHS. Sometimes on the way down or going up to Red Lodge we would meet Sylvia driving in her green car. You drove slow and was so alert that if one waved to her she would just lift her index finger from the grip on the steering wheel. I last visited Sylvia in Fox in September 1996. I had already been living in Finland six years. She wondered if it was a good idea that I moved here, back in 1990, but after visiting with her she felt it was a good thing after all. I also remember he father, John, who was still living with her after I left home in 1981. I commented on the painting of him that hung on her living room wall. You could see it as soon as you came through the door. She was so happy that I recognized it as being of her father. My two favorite things in her kitchen were the cuckoo clock and the sign above the door that read something like "kwitchurbeliaken" = Quit your bellyaching. She was the last of the old-timers in the Fox Community. I wrote the following in Facebook the first I had heard of her passing. I had meant to write her a letter and kept putting it off. This saddens me. Jeesus sanoi: Ei yksikään, joka elää ja usko minuun, ikinä kuole. Hyvästi, rakas Sylvia. Jesus said,"And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die." Good-bye, dear Sylvia.