Evelin Ilves

‘Eternal longing’ - Kodukiri magazine, April 2013

There was once an Estonian girl who was drawn to the lights of the big city; to the palpable energy of a million people breathing as one. She wanted to assuage her longing for new smells, new flavours and new customs; to lose herself in the crowd and steal glances at what everyone else was doing; to throw herself into her new situation and put herself to the test.

Actually, you couldn't call her a girl any more. She was married, to a huntsman, and had two sons, making her every bit the wife and mother. But she was more than that – she ran her own business, too, which was growing at a rate of knots and for which she was constantly searching out new markets. She often worked without days off, getting up early and still firing off e-mails to her staff and partners at the stroke of midnight. She was one of those typical Nordic women who "follows a feverish path and whose song belongs to no man"*. She lived for speed, and burnt with passion. She didn't know any other way of being.

And although things were going well for her – better than well: fantastically – the restlessness crept in. Maybe things would be even better somewhere else? Maybe she could make even more of her talents and her drive somewhere else? She wanted to change the world. The only thing was, she didn't know how to.

But one day she simply packed up her bags and left. She set her sights on the other side of the world – a place described as one of the most rapidly developing on the planet, with an excellent standard of living, affluent and influential. Its ancient culture imbued it with a dignified history, while the high-tech realities of everyday life represented the Estonian dream: a dream of a place where there was no more poverty, and no more problems; where it was as if every child was the highest authority, their emotional and educational needs dictating the flow and tempo of life throughout the country. In this dream place all disease and dependency had been long since eradicated through the use of personal gene cards, and all of the services that people needed – whether they be in the city, at sea or deep in the ancient forest – were but the click of a mouse away. Everything worked. Everything flourished. Everything prospered. It was a dream of a place that was wild and frenzied and yet distinguished and educated and, above all else, beautiful...

The luring lights of the metropolis in that endless seaside sky through which the girl flew promised to make that dream – or one very much like it – come true.

10.04.2013

Evelin Ilves visited a children's hospital in Ottawa

Evelin Ilves, who is in Canada in connection with the state visit of President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, visited the CHEO children's hospital in Ottawa.

03.05.2013

Evelin Ilves visited an elementary school in Paris

Evelin Ilves today visited the École élémentaire Miollis elementary school in the 15th District of Paris. A separate kindergarten, Ecole maternelle Miollis, is located at the school, in a different building, and both establishments share a cafeteria.

11.04.2013

Evelin Ilves and Toomas Tõniste acknowledged rower Jüri-Mikk Udam in front of his school family

Evelin Ilves and a former Olympics sailor, Toomas Tõniste, paid a visit today to Tallinn Secondary Science School to acknowledge rower Jüri-Mikk Udam, who was last year awarded the Young Athlete's Award of the First Lady's Foundation of the Cultural Foundation of the President of the Republic.

26.03.2013