How we met: 'It's like waking up to the sun every day. I longed for a kindred spirit - and I found it'

In the summer of 2014, Ron traveled to Finland from his home in Sydney for a family reunion. “My brother had married a Finn and they asked me to take part in a big party in Lapland. I had been divorced since 2009 and I think they knew I was a bit distraught,” he says. After he arrived in Helsinki, some of his in-laws decided to take him to Tallinn in Estonia, a short ferry ride away. When they arrived, they couldn't find the restaurant they had planned to visit. "We were on the street looking for this place when we saw Jaana with a map," says Ron.

A member of Ron's in-laws told her asked if she was lost too. “I told them that I lived in Helsinki, that I worked for a craft organization and that I would come to see an exhibition,” says Jaana. She was invited to join them for lunch, and they spotted the exhibit along the way. Sensing that maybe something was up, the lunch continued, leaving Ron to go to the exhibition with Jaana.

"Afterwards, we went to sit on terrace and talked for three hours," says Ron. "I was afraid my English wasn't good enough," Jaana says, "but it was so natural and easy to talk."

They exchanged numbers phone before Jaana picked up the ferry to Helsinki. The next day, Ron traveled to Lapland, but soon realized he wanted to spend more time with Jaana. “We were in constant contact on WhatsApp. For both of us, there was this sense of contentment and peace in each other's company,” he says.

Jaana invited Ron to stay with her for the rest of her journey. "I was nervous because we only met for a few hours," says Jaana. "But when I picked him up from the airport, I just thought, yeah, that's it." Over the next week and a half, she showed him the sights of the city. "We were really falling in love," Ron says. For two years, they were a long-distance couple, regularly traveling to each other's hometowns.

In April 2016, they felt they couldn't no longer be separated and Jaana moved to Sydney. “It was a tough decision to leave,” she says. “But Ron owned a house there and it made more sense to us. I also love Sydney and how multicultural it is. They married in 2017 and Jaana went on to start her own fashion accessories business, while Ron continued to work as a historian and writer. ="inline" data-spacefinder-type="model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.ImageBlockElement" class="dcr-10khgmf">

In July 2018 they moved to Lithuania where Ron had moved been offered an academic position. When the pandemic hit, they were unable to return to Australia and instead traveled to Lapland, where Jaana's family is from. “We were in the arctic wilderness, which was another amazing adventure,” says Ron. "After that we temporarily moved to Mariehamn, off Sweden, as we still couldn't get back, before returning to Sydney earlier this...