Laila Joplin

April 27, 1933 - November 12, 2020

Laila Synnöve Joplin, 87, passed away, Thursday, Nov 12, 2020 in Provo, Utah. Laila Synnöve Joplin, also known as “Mana,” was born April 27, 1933 to Sven and Laila Hellevi Blomqvist in Viipuri, Finland. Growing up in wartime Finland as the oldest child of an Air Force officer, Laila learned to work hard and with little. She helped her mother with housework, and tended the family garden growing carrots, berries, and thirteen apple trees. As a child she enjoyed biking, taking a sauna, swimming in Finland’s lakes, and picking wild berries and flowers in the forest. In school, she loved all subjects, especially history, and sang in the school choir as a soprano. As a young adult, she attended a cooking school where she learned to bake and cook, a passion she shared with friends and family all her remaining life. She worked as a nanny in Norway, and as a nurse’s aide in Sweden and Canada. She was baptized into the LDS church at the age of eighteen, and served as one of the first thirty LDS missionaries in Finland. In her mid-twenties, she emigrated to the United States where she met her husband, Steven Joplin, and married in the Salt Lake Temple. Together they had four children: Satu, Disa, Just, and Suvi. She later earned her associate degree in nursing, and worked as a devoted nurse in the California Bay Area. Laila nurtured her curiosity and created a life full of varied hobbies and interests, including reading, piano and organ, walking, swimming, health and nutrition, knitting, crocheting, spinning and weaving, genealogical research, art and music. She was a devoted LDS church member who lived a life defined by service. She visited and served the older widowed sisters and many others in her community. Laila loved warm colors, gatherings, nourishing foods, Scandinavian-designed furniture, and everything Finnish. She cherished her friends and delighted in young children. She welcomed different personalities and perspectives. When asked if she had any advice from her life, she said, “Don’t put anybody down,” and to “think good about people.” She experienced many hardships and difficult times throughout her life, but preserved a quick and belly-deep laughter. She embodied what Finns would call “sisu”, meaning a Finnish quality of stoic determination, tenacity of purpose, bravery, grit and resilience. She is survived by her four children, Satu Woodland, Disa Brock, Just Joplin, Suvi Anderson, and their spouses, Dave, Cleve, Dianne, Dennis, fifteen grandchildren, thirteen great-grandchildren, and her younger sister, Hannele Wilson. She is predeceased by her husband and parents. A memorial will take place Saturday, Dec 5, 2020 at 11am at the LDS Oakhills Church for immediate family members only. She will be buried next to her husband at the East Lawn Memorial Hills Cemetery in Provo. Funeral Directors: Utah Valley Mortuary.