Perhaps Aki’s life wasn’t as long as it could have been, but it was packed full of adventures and experiences.

In July 1969, the Kielenniva Family arrived in Sydney from Finland to begin their new lives in Australia. Aki was aged 9.

Mid 1975, 6 months after cyclone Tracy devastated Darwin, Aki aged 15, his dad and Harri arrived in Darwin for the rebuild of the city.

In 1977, at the age of 17, Aki started up his very first business - one of many - NT Window Cleaning. 

The weeks were filled with hard work, the weekends spent motorbike riding and fishing.

It was during this period that Aki met Cathy, they fell in love, and together their adventure began.

This story is especially for Aki’s kids:

Aki and Cathy did a lot of trips, but one of the earliest ones was with Harri.

This particular trip involved  Harri taking Aki and Cathy to the Daly River for a spot of Barra Fishing in the Dry Season.

They parked their 4wd by the river, and fished whilst walking slowly upstream.  Harri had brought along his pig hunting dog Spike, who had been behaving himself right up to the point on the way back to their 4wd when the 4 of them came upon a young bull and his herd of cows blocking their way back.

The Bull ran away initially towards his unimpressed cows, who shamed him into turning around and charging Spike, which was a big mistake, as Spike sunk his teeth into the bulls nose, locking his jaw.  The bull was enraged and tried his hardest to shake him off.

It was the middle of a hot territory day, and the heat was wearing the bull down, so the bull came up with plan B. Which was to lay his head and the dog flat on the ground and try to stomp spike with his front hoove, no success. So plan C. Came about, which was to try to smack the dog against a tree, no luck again.

End result was the bull laying its head once more flat on the ground. The dog remained latched on, both gasping for air.

Harri gave strict instructions to Aki and Cathy to stand well back and that he would coax his dog into unlocking his jaw.

Harri recalls feeling absolutely ridiculous, Aki and Cathy standing there watching, and he lieing down on the ground next to his dog and whispering nice things into his dogs ear, the whole time staring into the bulls eyes, which worked, the dog calmed and let go.

Harri got up quickly and stepped back, cradling his dog,  the bull bounced up, glanced over at his cows, turned back and obviously looked like he was going to kill someone.

Harri who was cradling his dog was not the way to go, and in that split second, the bull knew the better option was to go after Aki and Cathy.

Those two had not followed the earlier instructions to stay back well enough and one look at the bull and they realised their mistake.  Standing under a very very small tree, both aki and Cathy realised that the tree would be their best option of escape.

Harri recalls Aki scrambling up this tree, Cathy on the ground scared, but her knight in shining armour came through, Aki reached down, grabbed Cathy by the hair, and pulled her up into the tree.  There wasn’t enough time to finesse the climbing bit.  The Bull stayed there under their little tree glaring up not giving up, but they were safe.

After Harri stopped laughing, he told Aki that the bull would eventually tire and leave, and in the meantime he was going back to his 4wd for a beer and he would see them there.

Cathy Cathy Cathy, you still married Aki, and I think that says it all!

On a personal note, Aki and Cathy were big supporters of me when I first met Harri, and Aki went on to become Harri’s best man at our wedding. 

Aki and Cathy’s life was always busy, and as with all marriages there’s always going to be ups and downs, happy and sad times, but regardless of all that, no one can deny that even though Aki was not very good at showing and expressing his emotions, Aki loved you Cathy right up to the very end.

Rachel, Dommi, Michael and Timmy, your father was very proud of all of you and your respective families, and he never missed an opportunity to tell everyone how you all were going, your achievements were his achievements. he loved each of you equally and dearly. 

Resting In Peace.