Anja Kosonen Kiraly, the human embodiment of the Finnish concept of SISU, died at age 78. She worked hard her entire life. Whether you needed a burger grilled, floor tile laid, a garden planted, furniture reupholstered, or your computer hard-drive partitioned, Anja figured out how to do it, and do it well. Knitting was her passion, and you better believe that any baby she was even remotely connected to had a blanket knitted for him or her. She even made clothes for her kids. Which they liked. Really.

Anja came to the United States from Finland as an au pair, and eventually opened two restaurants – Burger ‘n Shake and Chief Schenevus – with her husband, the late Janos (John) Kiraly. She was a long-time resident of Long Island, NY and Schenevus, NY, and had tons of loving friends in both places.

Anja is survived by her three children, Anne-Marie Williams (Washington, DC), Richard Kiraly (Schenevus, NY), and Linda Gilbert (Philadelphia, PA), six grandchildren who are still fighting over who was her favorite, two great-grandchildren, sister Kitty Larsson (Sweden), and half-siblings Markku Sinkonen and Ylva Malmstrom (Finland).

If there is an afterlife, Anja is flagging down some worker there to tell her where the knitting supplies are.

In lieu of flowers, the family has asked for donations to be made to Project Linus in her name. This organization works to provide handmade blankets and afghans, lovingly created by volunteer “blanketeers” for children in need. https://www.projectlinus.org/