Many Seattle music scene vets remember Gary Heffern as the gracious, powerful, charismatic frontman for the Cunninghams and other legendary outfits. Before that, he fronted San Diego’s first important punk combo, the Penetrators.

But before that, his story gets even more fascinating.

Heffern’s early childhood was spent in an orphanage in Finland. He’d been “the youngest of eight abandoned siblings found in a barn,” as related by San Diego music historian Ray Brandes.

Heffern’s back in Finland these days. He participated in a TV documentary about his orphanage years, Sweet Kisses From Mommy. The whole thing’s now up and streaming at Brandes’s site.