91-year-old Ulla Toivonen receives Mother’s Day honour for lifelong community work

A 91-year-old woman from Sysmä, Finland, has been awarded the Order of the White Rose of Finland for her decades of motherhood and community service, reports Yle.

Ulla Toivonen will receive the first-class medal on Mother’s Day, an honour granted annually to exemplary mothers since 1946. The award recognises not only her role as a mother and grandmother but also her extensive volunteer work, including leading choirs and a traditional folk dance group (tanhuryhmä).

Toivonen remains actively engaged in daily life, tending to plants at home and researching family history. She rejects offers of assistance, insisting on independence. “If I stay still, I’ll soon need care,” she said.

Her community involvement spans decades. She founded a pensioners’ group still active today, where older members affectionately call her “mother.” “I tell them, ‘I was trained too, so I’ll train you,’” she joked.

Motherhood came as a surprise to Toivonen, who gave birth a year into her marriage. Raised in a large postwar family, she described her own upbringing as “short on personal growth.” Reflecting on her journey, she said: “My child has taught me more than my own mother taught me.”

As a grandmother, she has found parenting easier, noting that farm work once limited time with her daughter. To modern parents, she offers a Mother’s Day message: “May you find strength in raising your children—and may you have many more.”