Estonian-born Vaido Rooneem is an unrelenting mentor to Toronto Free Press. A kind of unofficial team cheerleader, he's good for morale. Tall and rangy, Rooneem is like a six-foot-five tonic. With only one day's notice for a Friday sales meeting, he was there, cracking a few jokes with sales manager Garth Birt and promotions manager, ex-Argo Dave Mann.
A sales representative with RE/MAX Unique Inc. Realty, spirits soared sky high when the Estonian recounted how he had dozens of telephone calls within days from his ad in TFP. "I’ve got better listings in one and a half days from the ad than I’ve had in the last year and a half, and I'm willing to give you a testimonial letter," he said.
His colleagues at Unique Realty tell us that Vaido displays the same kind of enthusiasm around their office.
Rooneem didn't check in after the sales meeting. After we left messages on his voice mail, a colleagues called to tell us that our Vaido had taken an unscheduled trip to Florida. Canadian doctors had given him the sad news that nothing much more could be done for his wife, Mai, who has ovarian cancer.
"Vaido took this trip in the desperate hope that American doctors will be able to do something to extend his wife's life," said the colleague.
Before leaving, the couple had to hospitalize Mai's father, to whom Vaido is emotionally attached. The father also has terminal cancer. Both of the couple's children are to be married this summer.
In the face of all this, Rooneem is still an inspiration to other people.
It was my special friend Markus Hess who introduced me to the realtor. Hess, whose mother is Estonian, says "Vaido is just like that".
"He throws his all into everything he does. When he owned an Estonian bakery in west end Toronto, he made the best sweet and sour rye bread available, and people would drive from Chicago to get it."
Hess, who plays volleyball with Vaido on Wednesday evenings, says his friend is "a prince".
"I’ve never seen him grumpy or angry and he always has an encouraging word for everyone."
The founding father of the August 23 Black Ribbon Day, which marks the atrocities of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact that saw Eastern Europe carved up between Hitler and Stalin, Hess is himself something of a prince.
Last month when his older children went off on a ski trip with their Mom, he took his 13-year-old daughter, Maiki ice skating at Mel Lastman Square.
Maiki (pronounced ‘Mikey’, but Estonian for the month of May), has cerebral palsy.
"I wanted Maiki to feel that she could participate in winter sports too," said her Dad.
When father and daughter arrived at the skating rink, there were only about 10 skaters on the ice. Hess donned his skates, but because he would have to push Maiki in her wheelchair, he asked the skaters whether they would mind, and was told no.
Maiki squealed with joy as her father skated her wheelchair around the ice. All was going well until a City Hall security guard sent out someone called "the skating monitor", who asked them to leave.
"I fought it, but in short we were hassled off the ice," says Hess.
Maiki’s mother was in tears when she heard the story. So the man whose tireless work made August 23 Black Ribbon Day an annual event in Lithuania, decided he would fight to allow all citizens--handicapped or not-- on the ice at Mel Lastman Square.
"Because of her situation, there are things Maiki knows she cannot do, now there are things she may not want to do," says Hess.
Demanding answers from a series of bureaucrats, Hess was told that wheelchairs on municipal rinks pose a liability issue and that with amalgamation, not all municipalities have the same insurance policies.
"I argued I was not responsible for their inefficiency and incompetence," said Hess.
"No equipment on the ice," say the bureaucrats. "This is not equipment, it’s a wheelchair," counters Hess.
At last count, city bureaucrats were emailing him pictures of ‘sledges’ they claim are preferable to wheelchairs, in terms of safety on ice.
Meanwhile, Hess says he’ll continue to fight it out with the bureaucrats and hopes that the argument will have been resolved by next winter. Having seen Hess in action when he dared to lead a group of entrepreneurs to the Baltic States, then fighting for independence from the Soviet Union, I feel sorry for the bureaucrats.
In a cold sometimes uncaring world, there’s a lesson to be learned from the two Estonian friends.
Even if American doctors can extend his wife’s life by only a few days, Vaido Rooneem is going to try.
The wall of bureaucracy isn’t quite so impenetrable in the face of a father fighting for the rights of a little girl with cerebral palsy.
The lesson from the Estonians is a lesson in love.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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