Vivian: Life in Estonia Ch. 16

Aside from her successful political accomplishments during the first week of the Kaja Kallas administration, Vivian Laaning also effected some significant changes in her personal life. As a result of her dalliance with Urmus Tralla, she came to the realization that she could no longer continue to stay married to Eino Tarvas. In coming to such a conclusion, she acknowledged even in her own mind, that if blame had to be assigned for the failure of the marriage, she would have to bear the brunt of the responsibility as a result of her adultery.

Still in her own estimation, she could justify herself in that she had been absolutely candid about her sexual past when reacting to her husband's very abrupt marriage proposal. She had informed Eino the particulars of the significance of her tattoos, plus advised him of her TLR activities. While she had recounted those particulars to him, she had not exhibited any remorse for having engaged in such brazen sexual activities, which most would consider as debauchery. This should have been a clue to him about her tendency towards indiscriminate sex.

In fact, that was the main reason Vivian had been so forthcoming in the admission of her promiscuity. She had the financial wherewithal to conduct a trans Atlantic love affair which in her mind would have been the most reasonable outcome of their brief tryst. However, when he proposed actual marriage, she was taken in by the romantic suggestion. As a result, she was lulled by Eino's attitude that her sexual past was irrelevant to him, and it did not mean she couldn't be faithful in her marriage.

That explicit impression put Vivian in a quandary. Could she really be a one man woman? Her sister, Erica showed that it was possible. Erica, when single, was just as sluttish if not more so than her. However, since her marriage to Rod Koeninger, she had been the epitome of the faithful wife. Strictly speaking there were technical exceptions to Erica's faithfulness, but they were easily explained away in assessing the circumstances such that those few instances did not amount to true adultery.

Vivian felt she could emulate her sister's example. However, she instinctively knew that Eino truly expected that after marriage whenever she would engage in sex, it would absolutely be confined exclusively to him. In her own mind, she really didn't think she was committing real adultery when she attended a TLR orgy while visiting her family in the United States. But then again, she realized that Eino might view it differently, and so she was silent as to its occurrence.

In retrospect Vivian realized that was her most egregious mistake. She knew that she would still want to partake in an orgy at the TLR, no matter how much she was in love with her husband. Her best friend Angela Peterson, née Black was a terrific example and so were Chloe Hamilton and Beverley Browning, all members of the TLR who loved their husbands unconditionally but still regularly attended TLR orgies. However, the main differences with those women and her was the fact that their husbands were also members of the TLR. Thus, the element of jealousy and suspicion were removed in their cases.

Since she last attended a TLR orgy some six months previously, whereby she had admitted to Eino of her attendance, she had hoped to have cleared the air with him about her sexual needs. She had hoped he would be willing to accommodate in some way acceptable to her in regard to her need to engage in some form of extramarital sex, and thereby they could still lead a marvelous loving marriage.

However, in that time, he had not been accessible to engaging in a serious conversation to address their matrimonial problems and concerns. That in return made her more susceptible to engaging in adultery with Urmus Tralla, where otherwise she could have resisted the temptation. In any case, with her new position in the Estonian government, it meant she would be residing in Tallinn a significant amount of time. And she sure as hell knew she would not be nor desire to be celibate during such time.

Accordingly, on Tuesday night she engaged the services of a real estate agent to locate a suitable home or an apartment either to purchase or to rent which would suit her and her seven year old daughter. Having outlined her desires, the agent indicated that he would have at least four properties to show the next night that she should be pleased with. Accordingly, there was a very suitable and adorable medium sized four bedroom house, with kitchen and laundry appliances included. It was about twenty-two hundred square feet in size, with a built in sauna in the basement. It was just really ideal for her needs, and was available for occupancy on Monday, the first day of February. Vivian immediately penned an offer to purchase, and the agent was able to secure acceptance the very next day. The transaction was closed Friday morning as Vivian had no problem in securing the purchase price in full from her Swiss bank account. She was thus as a result, able to gain legal possession and physically able to move into her new house that Monday.

The house Vivian had purchased was quite close and within easy walking distance from the residence of Hele Mölder the woman who was the friend of Marika Läänemets. Hele had a daughter named Riina, who was two months younger than Maia, and who had in a pinch breastfed Maia in conjunction with her own baby daughter during those glorious heady days when Eino Tarvas was courting Vivian.

During that Thursday night, Vivian got in touch with Hele to outline her circumstances. She advised that she intended to leave her husband and had purchased a home nearby. Since Marika Läänemets was the sister-in-law to her husband, Vivian found it awkward to contact her for the favor she needed with regards to Maia. Considering her work schedule, she needed a reliable baby sister for Maia until she got home from work. As Hele was a stay at home mom, and a beneficiary of the legislation pioneered by Vivian to reimburse mothers who were not working, she was delighted to take on the responsibility. What was even more beneficial to Hele Mölder was the fact that Maia was the same age as her daughter Riina and presumably those two girls would likely become friends.

Of course, that entire week also comprised of some more scintillating sex with Urmus Tralla which made the entire period as one of the most energetic weeks in her life. Before she left to return to the Tarvas farm and confront her husband, she also had time to pre enroll Maia to start grade one in the fall at the appropriate school in Tallinn. Thus, when she drove back to the farm, she was buoyed by all her accomplishments she had achieved. This took away the sting of going through the formality of ending her six and a half years of marriage.

As she had burned her bridges in determining not to continue in her marriage, she was surprised at how the end of her marriage was resolved without any angry recriminations. It turned out that Eino was also cognizant of the futility of continuing the marriage. As a result, he had actually formed an attachment to one of the hired female workers for the farm and had carried on an adulterous affair which Vivian had been unaware of. That revelation went a long way to explaining Eino's coldness and the lack of marital intimacy during essentially the past entire year.

Paradoxically, Vivian was annoyed to learn of Eino's adultery, but of course she had no leg to stand on to be infuriated. Actually, the person who was most saddened by the end of the marriage was her mother-in-law, Maarja Tarvas. During the course of the marriage Maarja had become very attached to Vivian, as she reveled in the knowledge that Vivian was a truly outstanding wife for her son.

Maarja was sobbing vociferously as she hugged Vivian in a farewell embrace. She whispered in Vivian's ear that she had no doubt that Eino would forever regret losing her. For herself, she acknowledged that she certainly would miss her enjoyable day to day contact with Vivian. Maarja further intimated that her son's new romantic interest could not possibly hold a candle to even his first wife, Dagi, never mind to Vivian. In Maarja's estimation, Vivian brought forth more joy to Eino's life, than either of them combined.

The transition for Vivian and Maia to their new home in Tallinn went as smooth as possible. Maia and Riina Mölder soon became the best of friends, and Maia had an easy time fitting in to her new school. This was the time Vivian was very pleased to be independently wealthy. During the marriage she had maintained her own wealth in the Swiss bank and thus within a week she had her home furnished elegantly to her desire and which reflected her status as a prominent cabinet minister in the Estonian government.

Because the end of their marriage was not acrimonious, there was not much contention in settling the terms for the divorce. Vivian had Urmus represent her in the negotiations, while Eino utilized the services of a local attorney in Valga. There was no battle regarding the children in the marriage. Neither Eino nor Vivian had any interest in setting up visitation rights to the other's child. During the marriage they were the de facto parents to both of the children. Neither one of them had ever differentiated their parental responsibilities over the children along their blood ties. Nevertheless, both Eino and Vivian were in agreement that they and their children would remain strangers from here on in.

They also settled the financial issues without undue haggling. Eino agreed to pay back all the monies Vivian had advanced out of her own personal funds throughout their marriage to improve the value of the farm. An agreed settlement figure was reached. Vivian only charged minimal bank deposit any interest in repayment and Eino placed a mortgage in favor of Vivian on the land as collateral for repayment. As it turned out he was able to retire the debt within ten years.

The craft beer enterprise would be completely owned by Vivian, and Eino agreed to lease the entire arable lands of the Kangur farmstead, as he was focused on his large dairy farm enterprise. The land not used for the growing of the crops were still available for grazing by his dairy cattle. The lease had a term of fifty years with an agreed fixed rental price. In return, Vivian would have no further claim on the value of the combined farmstead. Eino was not obliged to offer accommodation for the workers toiling on the leased property, but space could be provided on the Kangur farm if the accommodation for the still needed hired workers for his dairy farm production were satisfied.

During Vivian's two years partnership with the European subsidiary of Baxter & Sons, breweries in Tartu and Tallinn had been established. The Tallinn brewery serviced the Scandinavian countries and western Russia as well as Belarus. The Tartu brewery serviced the Baltic States including obviously Estonia. They also serviced Poland. For the following two years, the plan was to establish breweries in Prague, Berlin and in Belgium. By that time all of continental Europe would have been marketed. Having negotiated the lease of the arable land of the Kangur farm, the growing of wheat was suspended. Instead, all the land was used to raise barley and hops which provided the unique flavor of Vivian's Brew.

With her full-time commitment to serving in the Kaja Kallas administration, Vivian had to relinquish her hands on involvement in the day to day operation of the craft beer business. Thus, a CEO and COO were hired to oversee the daily operations. The COO operated out of Tartu, while the CEO was initially resident in Tallinn, he moved to Berlin once the brewery was settled there. Nevertheless, all major decisions had to be approved by Vivian and the agent for Baxter & Sons. To accomplish this, a teleconferencing weekly meeting was scheduled usually on Friday afternoons involving the four of them.

Mostly by word of mouth advertising Vivian's Brew became a very popular product and grabbed a fair share of the market in Europe. As a result, the crops harvested on the Kangur farmlands were not enough to meet the demand, so eventually Vivian's company bought two neighboring farms. Later on, when the breweries in Berlin and Prague were established Vivian's company bought and leased some more farmland in Germany and in the Czech Republic.

As the hops and barley from those farms did not quite duplicate the same flavor of beer produced in the Estonian breweries, Vivian and her partner opted to offer for sale two different brands. The beer produced in Berlin was labeled as Vivian's Deutsches Gebräu (Vivian's German Brew). The beer produced in Prague was labeled simply as Vivianino Pivo (Vivian's Beer). Vivian's Brew was now relabeled as Vivian's Original Brew in the language where it was sold. Thus, in Estonia it would appear as Viviani Originaalpruul.

Her now important position in the government together along with her involvement with her beer company, proved to be a very exhausting lifestyle indeed. And that is not considering that she still had her motherly duties to fulfill. Vivian soon came to the conclusion that the greatest misfortune in the failure of her marriage was the loss of the services of Maarja Tarvas in assisting her in taking care of Maia. Vivian's own upbringing was not a reliable model to raise her own daughter since her circumstances now had become so much different than those oh her parents.

Vivian had grown up on a dairy farm, where she had assigned chores to do since she attained the age of four years. Therefore, she saw no reason to coddle her daughter, but instead she felt it incumbent on her to teach her daughter to become self-sufficient. Vivian's parents had been very frugal to the point of being miserly Vivian was forced to learn how to sew and knit at a very young age. By the time she was twelve years old, she would be sewing completely on her own, the clothes she wore. Vivian at one time quipped to Erica, "It's a good thing neither of our parents were cobblers or we would be making our own shoes and boots as well."

Mind you the benefit for her and her siblings of their parents' frugality, manifested in their adulthood. Their parents divided their excess earnings from their dairy farm into two parts. One half was set aside in a pension fund that would allow them to retire to an excellent assisted living facility, and when the time came, they were able to go to one in Arizona. Not only that, but there was left over monies to pay for their funeral expenses so that their children were not financially burdened by the occasion of each of their deaths.

The other half of the discretionary income was divided into three portions and also invested in trust funds for the benefit of their three children. Forty percent of that income was invested for the benefit of Erica, forty percent was invested for the benefit of Vivian, which left twenty percent invested for the benefit of Paul. Paul's portion being half of his sisters' individual allotment was understandable in the light that he was going to take over running the farm upon retirement of the senior Laanings, and he would become the ultimate owner upon his parents' death.

Because of their parents' thoughtfulness and rationale in allocating their income earned from their dairy farm in Wisconsin, neither one of their children had cause to complain of their situation. Paul certainly could not complain that his trust fund was half in value of that of either of his sisters, since he was going to be sole owner of the farm, free and clear of any claims by either of his sisters.

The value of his trust fund was sufficient to pay his college expenses for his agricultural studies at Iowa State University. The idea was that such education ought to make him a better dairy farmer. It was made clear to Paul that this was his parents' only rationale for setting up a trust fund for him in the first place. Were he to refuse to go to college, his parents had intimated they would revert the monies in his trust fund to augment his sisters' trust funds. As it was the excess funds not needed for his educational fund was plowed back to the trust funds for the benefit of Erica and Vivian.

Likewise, Vivian had no complaint about any perceived insufficiency of her parents' largess towards her. Her trust fund had accumulated enough funds that together with her scholarships and outright government grants were able to meet her total college education expenses. As a result, after having passed the bar exams for the State of Illinois and having acquired employment at Kirkland, Mayer & McDermott, one of the most prestigious law firms in Chicago, she did not owe a cent for her exceptional education.

In the case of Erica, since she had not gone to college, her trust fund did not mature until she had attained the age of thirty years. By that time per force, it was the most substantial trust fund of the three Laaning children. In addition, she had attained the maturity to decide on the realistic profitable use of her monies. Before the age of thirty, Erica had experienced a failed marriage and was saddled with an illegitimate son. Despite such adversity in her life, Erica had managed a do over in her life. Or to put it into a vulgar metaphor, she may have fallen into a vat of shit, but nevertheless, she still came out of it smelling like a rose.

Erica started out in the restaurant work force as a lowly run of the mill waitress, or as the politically correct would say a mere server. Her personality, plus her beauty in addition to her solid work ethic easily garnered her a very positive reputation amongst the restaurant's regular customers as the most exemplar server or waitress who one could ever wish for. Thus, those customers would invariably ask the hostess, greeting the customers, if Erica was on duty. If she was, they would insist on being seated in her section, and if that was not possible, they would be willing to wait until an opening would incur. And such customers were willing to wait despite having a reservation insuring they could be serviced immediately.

Soon, Erica was promoted to an assistant manager position, and eventually general manager of the restaurant. By this time the trust fund had kicked in so that she had enough capital to start a restaurant. In this endeavor she was assisted by her second husband who had saved up some excess money from his income as a football player in the NFL. To top it all, Vivian's boyfriend at the time, Jed Baxter, also advanced funds to Erica for her restaurant.

With such an example of her upbringing, Vivian established for Maia a trust fund for future educational expenses similarly as it had been done for her by her parents. During the time Vivian was married to Eino and lived on the farm in Valgamaa, Maia's upbringing was quite similar to what had been her upbringing except that Maia did not speak any English or German at home; she only spoke Estonian.

Since Vivian had now become a single mother and living in an urban setting, there was not the scope of assigning the various kinds of chores to Maia which she had undergone in her growing up period. As an example, obviously now Maia would not learn how to manually milk a cow. Of course, that is not a skill that is essential to day to day living even if one is living on a dairy farm. With the exception of her incapacity of eight months during her illness from mononucleosis, Vivian had hand milked four cows twice a day virtually every day, since she was twelve years old, till the day she left for college. To her mind, this experience instilled a terrific discipline order to her life.

It made it easy for her to sail through college and law school with sensational grades. This was certainly evident, especially during her undergraduate years at the University of Wisconsin. Vivian was a party girl engaged in lots of sex which included heavy drinking of alcohol. Nevertheless, she still had the discipline to keep current with her school work, and had no problem even in the intense academic requirements to get through law school and pass the bar exams.