This Seili – Tragic Stories article is going to be a bit different: instead of guiding you through the Seili Island in Finland, I’m going to go fictional! Today you’ll get 4 short stories of women that possibly lived the rest of their days on the ‘Isolation Island’ against their will.
To set the scene, in the 1600 and 1700 Seili island acted as an isolation camp for those suffering from leprosy. They were taken to the island so they wouldn’t pass the disease to anyone else. After leprosy vanished from Finland Seili was transformed into a lunatic asylum. But it was mainly used to relocate “chronic women”.
These 4 short stories depict what life would’ve been like for women brought to the island for different reasons. Why and how they got there, and what must have gone through their heads while there.
If you want to read more about Seili, and the Turku Archiplago, click yourself here.
Seili – Tragic Stories of the Women Sentenced to Eternal Isolation
Elin, 1664 – 1696
It’s 1684 and I’m sitting in a boat on my way to the rest of my life, they say. I’ve been betrayed by my husband who, as I just found out from our neighbour sitting here next to me, wanted to swap me for another woman.
This is my thanks for being a dutiful, faithful wife for 4 years already. Sure, I haven’t been able to give him any children yet. But I wouldn’t have thought that at 20 years of age I’d be considered obsolete already.
They’re taking us to Seili, an island dedicated to leprosy patients that need to be removed from among healthy people. The thing is, I don’t suffer from leprosy! Our neighbour, who does, was again able to shine a light on the matter for me.
Just 2 days ago he was in church lighting a candle for his long-gone mother when my dear husband barges in. He’s screaming “Father, Father, you must help us! Oh, may God forgive her!” And when Father Jansson had requested him to elaborate, he had said that his poor wife has contracted leprosy.
I repeat, I had not! But to my misfortune I do have a rather big birth mark just next to my bellybutton. Now, I am sure anyone with medical knowledge would recognize it as just a birthmark, but priests are the ones that make the decisions in these matters. Perkele!
So here I am, on a boat with 30 odd other people, most of them actually and correctly diagnosed heading to meet our maker. They say there’s no way to get off the island once we get there… Seili. I remember dad calling it Seal Island, but I guess the King preferred a more ambiguous name.
His Majesty made an official letter of instruction about setting this place up. Oh, I can see it now! The rest of my life in the horizon.
*
Well, it only took me about 2 days among the people with leprosy until I caught it myself. I guess I knew this was going to happen the moment they sat me on that boat. But it is natural not wanting to actually acknowledge it, isn’t it?
So, here we are! To say that I’m not well is an understatement to the greatest degree. I am practically blind, even though that’s the least of my worries. I’m sick of seeing the endless sea all around us anyway. My body is giving way, I can feel it. I wonder if I’ve got another year in me…
Another year until I’m just buried under the earth to be forgotten by the world. Has my husband forgotten about me, I wonder? Does he ever feel guilty for what he has done? May he rot in hell!
Malin, 1722 – 1785
I’m on an island… I don’t know where. There’s nobody here! Where’s mother? Where are my sisters? Why did they give me this stack of wooden boards to take with me?
They came to our house after the church bell had announced midday. I knew it was about the marks I got on my skin couple days ago. But I didn’t know what they were. Now I do. Leprosy, they said. Looking at me like I was the devil himself.
Grabbed me with their gloved hands, they did. Mother cried. My sisters screamed. Fisticuffs were had and I saw 2 men bleeding from the nose after they had told mother to calm herself. You should never say such things to my mother.
But no matter how feisty she is, she can’t fight the King. If the King says I need to go to an island, then I must go to an island. I think it said Seili by the dock where we arrived. Yes, I am only 11 but I can read already. Daddy always says I am the smartest of his 4 girls! Makes me feel all warm and happy inside when he says that.
* 10 years later *
Leprosy, they said. Well, I know now what that is. My body is covered in pigmentation, my hair has started to fall off, even my eyebrows have all but disappeared. I have had a horrible time. Being left on an island all by oneself is bad enough, but to do that to a child! What sort of a King does that?
I spend most of my days in the church. And if I’m not in the church I’m by the sea calling out to my mother and my sisters. Surely they are looking for me. I have done this every day now. Somebody must hear me.
Sometimes I see fishing boats floating by. I think one of them heard me couple days ago… But they turned and rowed away fast.
* 15 years later *
Faith is an amazing thing! I feel sorry for those who do not have it. I don’t think I would still be alive on this supposedly god-forsaken island if it wasn’t for God. My body is crumbling, but my mind keeps getting stronger.
I have grown comfortable with my loneliness. Or is it loneliness if I always have God here with me? I have learned to find food in the abundant nature around me and preserve food for Winter.
Probably shouldn’t have, but I built a small raft for myself after I found some fishing line some years ago. Now I go fishing every other day! They said once you’re on the island there is no leaving it. I wonder if the King would punish me if he knew.
I think I figured out why they gave me the wooden boards when they brought me here, though… They are for a coffin.
I guess they didn’t think a woman would last this long (25 years here already!) They gave me enough wood for a small coffin. A child’s coffin. Although who did they think would bury me when there’s nobody here but me and birds and bugs?
* 27 years later *
I’ve lost track of time. Is it 30 years that I have been here alone? Or maybe even 40? I wouldn’t know, I stopped keeping track when I lost faith in my mother ever coming to find me. Is she alive still? Are my sisters? Did they find good husbands? How many children do they have? How many sisters do I have? Did I ever have sisters?
It’s neither here nor there now. I’m finally finished. My body died weeks ago. Or is it months? I’ve just been lying in my bed talking with God. Thankfully he still talks to me. I can’t wait to see him!
I wish my mind would finally let me go. It’s okay, I don’t need to hang on anymore. I am ready for the adventure that they thought I would embark on the moment they left me here. God bless the King.
Malin Mattsdotter is a real person who was taken to the island of Seili as the last leprosy patient to be isolated. She spent 52 years on the island alone and was buried on there in 1785. How long had she been dead before she was found is unknown. May she have found peace in death.
Maria, 1864 – 1918
Seili. Tragic stories is all you’ll get from here! When I signed up to be a nurse, this was not what I expected my life’s work to be about! Being sent on a secluded island with a bunch of women whose wits have deserted them. What has the world come to…
Well, if I’m completely honest, many of the women sent here very much have their wits about them still. But they didn’t abide by the rules, and here we are. That’s the most important thing if you want to succeed in life as woman: stick to the rules.
Look at this woman here! 21 years old, beautiful as a fairy princess, from a respectable family too. The brightest of futures ahead of her. And then what does she do? Steals her brother’s law books, learns them by heart and challenges him in actual court while he’s in the middle of sentencing someone.
Well, that’s a one way ticket to Seili in the bag right there! What on Earth was she thinking?
In any case, I’m actually quite glad she’s here. I sneak into her room sometimes under the pretext of giving her some sedative medicine (having grown up in a farm I know for a fact that that stuff is meant for horses and cattle but as I said, stick to the rules!) She plays cards really well, which most of them here don’t.
You want to know what the most recent treatment for mental cases is? Squares! Painted all over the walls. Now, I’m not one to say, but just between you and me, I don’t think it works very well. If anything else, it drives the actually mentally unstable even further into insanity.
But I’m just here to do what I’m told. Today I’m scheduled to supervise a group that’s responsible for weaving some thread for those who are accomplished enough to make actual clothes out of them. The problem is, this particular group includes couple ladies who do have their wits about them still.
One of them ended up here because his father died penniless, so then he couldn’t sell her over to his rich clients to do whatever they wanted with her. Apparently she’s too stupid to sell herself. The other one was a teacher but according to her husband she had relations with her students. She says she didn’t.
In any case, they were both diagnosed as barmy so here they are. Rather sharp both of them, though, so I need to be on my guard. Neither of them want to be here, of course, so they are looking for ways to end their days. And a spinning wheel has a lot of parts they can use to accomplish that.
My job is to prevent them from succeeding. Is it fair on them? No, I don’t think so. I think it would be better to let them do what they wish to end their miserable days. But the rules won’t allow it, so I won’t allow it!
Helena, 1899 – 1931
Until death do us part. That’s what he said! That’s what my husband promised me 7 years ago when we got married! I’m not dead, am I? Neither is he!
Oh God, I wish I was though. Why would you do this to me? It’s 1930, how could you allow this to happen? Because yes, this is your fault! You are almighty, that’s what they keep telling us. How could you take my baby away from me? And in such a way! High fever, so much pain, all of it, for what? What had my baby done to deserve it? ANSWER ME!
He was only 4 months old, my baby boy. My beautiful baby boy. Was he so beautiful you wanted him for yourself so soon? How could you? What about me? What about my happiness, my husband’s happiness, what about our family? How dare you!
* 1 year later *
I’ve done it! I managed to steal a hairpin from the nurse. It’s 1am and it’s quiet all around me. Deathly quiet. Oh, how appropriate. I’m going to do it now.
Keep it quiet, keep it quiet… There! The lock on my door is open. I’m leaving my shoes behind, I won’t need them where I’m going. Tippy-toeing through the corridor. Thank God my room is just a couple meters from the back door. I’ll need the hairpin again. Oh wait! It’s open…
I guess they don’t need to lock the main doors when all the doors inside the house are locked already. Finally some luck!
I’m outside! I can see the sea glistening under the full moon. Mustn’t get too excited though, that’s 800 meters to the shore, I measured it. I need to move through the bushes…
I can’t believe it, I made it! Oh, the wind feels so violent throwing my hair and night gown all over the place. A storm, what a perfect weather for this. And I can’t even swim! The waves can have me. The faster they take me, the sooner I can see my baby boy again. Mama’s coming, my darling!
One step, two steps, oh the water is cold! But there’s no wind under the surface. Step, step. I can’t feel my toes anymore. Step, step. God it’s cold, feels like I’m being stabbed from every possible angle. Step step. Final breath of fresh air in this world until I’m on to the next. Step, step. It’s all dark…
Seili – Tragic Stories of the Women Sentenced to Eternal Isolation commemorates just some of the many miserable fates that awaited women who were sent there. I wanted to take this opportunity to showcase the unfairness with which women were treated not that long ago.
The Seili mental institution for women was closed in the 1960’s. That’s just over 70 years ago. We’ve come a long way since then in terms of women’s rights. But recently we’ve watched how the world around us takes steps backwards in regards to women’s rights.
Fact is that nobody is going to fight for women’s rights. Nobody except us ourselves! You say you’re not a feminist? That’s completely fine. Just remember to never complain when the last shreds of your human rights are taken away from you. You’ve lost that right too.
I don’t address how worried I am about things going to shit all over the place. But Seili was an experience that shook me to the core. Because it reminded me of the fact, that my grandmother didn’t have the rights that I’ve had since birth. My grandmother didn’t have the choices in life that I’ve had since birth.
My grandmother couldn’t fight the rules like I can. But she still did! And for that she could’ve been sent to Seili. Let us not forget the storms that our grandmothers had to weather so that we could have the lives that we do today. Now it’s up to us to make sure future generations of women have them too! ♥
