Beata Luule Sova

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Luule Sova 1920 - 2013 Luule Beate Sova was born in Viljandi, Estonia on November 21st 1920. She was the middle of three daughters. She had an older brother who died before she was born.Her father Artur Jung was a lawyer as well as the organist in the local church. Her mother Berta Antonie, nee Behrsin, came from a seafaring family. When Mom was young she did a voyage on a ship with her uncle from her mother’s side of the family to Paris. She attended school in Viljandi and Tallinn then studied languages and folklore at the University of Tartu. During the German occupation Luule taught school for a year in Abja and then later made translations for a firm in Tallinn. Her studies were interrupted when the Soviet forces occupied Estonia. She was in her third year of university then. The properties belonging to her parents were seized and nationalized. Her father escaped the deportation that took place before WWII because he happened to be away from home and went into hiding on a remote farm. Her mother died of a heart attack the day the Soviet authorities gave a 24 hour evacuation notice of her home. Luule left Estonia with her father and sister Kalli in 1944, the day the Soviet and German forces fought in the suburbs of Tallinn. She often told the story of how her father made them wait to take the last ship which was leaving even though there was room on the Red Cross ship which was leaving sooner, because it was meant for those who were ill or injured. The Red Cross ship was torpedoed and sank. Her older sister, Linda, left for Finland and made her way to Sweden with her daughter Pia. They had no idea that they would not be returning to their homeland again for many years. Being optimistic youth they thought it would only be a couple of years until they returned. It was a difficult time. Their ship landed in the Polish town of Danzig, which was already occupied by the Germans. Luule and her sister Kalli worked in a factory in war-torn Germany until they moved with their father to a refugee camp, or DP Camp as they were called, which was established in Hanau. There she taught English to Estonian refugee children. She later worked as a secretary in the DP Camp in Ashaffenburg and from there she went to work as a clerk interpreter in an office at the American Military Post in Furth near Nurnberg. This is where she met her future husband, Arvi Sova. Arvi was working for the Americans at that time as a guard in Nurnberg. He was also a guard in a Baltic Civilian Guard Company and had to check Luules’ entry pass to the American military area area which is where they met. They had both attended school in Viljandi as children. Although Mom did not know Arvi personally, as the schools were divided by gender then, she did know some of Arvi’s sisters and felt “at home” with him. They were married in Nurnberg, Germany on February 12th 1948 and immigrated to Australia shortly afterwards, having signed a DP work contract for 2 years. They lived in Brisbane, Queensland until their required work contracts expired, then moved to Mt Isa for better job prospects. Their two daughters, Helga and Ingrid, were born there and they all became Australian citizens in 1957. They had a nice group of Estonian friends there and Mom had many fond memories of Australia. However, she was adamant that she did not want her two daughters to grow up in a mining town. Mt Isa was a rough and tumble town at the time and did not offer much in the way of culture or amenities. 23 Meanwhile Luule’s father and sisters had emigrated to the American continent. She missed her family so they packed up and left Australia in the summer of 1958 to sail to Vancouver, Canada. But not all was rosy in the land of opportunity; soon after arriving Arvi had a logging accident which made finances very difficult for the young family. With the help of family and friends, plus a lot of hard work, they managed. Luule worked as a clerk at the YWCA for some years, taking classes at night at the local art school so she could qualify to do window display, which she did for over 10 years at various department stores downtown. Arvi went into carpentry. They had a a great circle of friends, including their family, and had lots of great times together, partying and dancing. Luule loved to dance. It was her view that unless one had dancing at a party it could not have been much fun. In 1975 she started her studies at the UBC Art Education Department but she suffered two serious heart attacks that year. She was able to continue studying for several years and made some lifelong friends there. Because of her disability she spent the following years as a graphic artist and painter, and belonged to several art societies ( Basic Inquiry, Federation of Artists and Dundarave Printmaking Society to mention a few), exhibiting her work in Canada, the US and abroad. Luule herself has expressed the opinion that her life as an artist has been like an unfinished symphony because she started to work as an artist too late in life. Luule has lived on three continents and had the citizenship of Estonia, Australia and Canada and felt at home in all of them. She had two daughters, Helga and Ingrid, four grandchildren, Adrian, Britta, Megan and Mallory, and one great grandson, Lucas. But her legacy remains not only in her family but in her creativity and zest for life through the arts. She was prolific as an artist and was very talented in printmaking. Although she did not play an instrument or sing herself she appreciated all kinds of music. She was an active member of the Filiae Patriae in Vancouver. Luule also expressed herself through writing, regularly writing letters to the editor of the local newspaper expressing her views on a variety of subjects. She also wrote poetry; her name “Luule” means “poetry” in Estonian and she loved poetry. http://www.vesbc.com/documents/lp236.pdf lk. 24

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