I moved from Canada to Finland, back to where my family comes from. It redefined my idea of home

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In my mid-20s, I made a decision that might have baffled my Finnish grandparents: I left Canada for Finland.

They had done the opposite. Seventy years earlier, both left post-war Finland by boat for better economic opportunities in Canada. They met in Montreal where they started a new life — and a family of nine children.

Born and raised in Montreal myself, I heard stories about Finland from my grandmother, often translated by my mum or aunts when she slipped into Finnish mid-sentence. The country felt like a distant, almost mythical place.

In 2017, my sister Liisa and I finally travelled there on what we called our “heritage tour” — which coincided with Finland’s 100th year of independence and at , a major Finnish holiday celebrating midsummer.

Duval’s mother, left, and grand