The joy of getting to know my cousin Sigrid in Bergen

I came to Bergen on May 31^st and the weather has been great, the temperature has not gone below 24°c in the shade, so don’t say that it’s always raining in Bergen. I got out of hospital the day before I came here and had to go to hospital again after I arrived, but I feel better now.  I’ll be staying for a month like last year and then it only rained once. But I’m going to tell you a story. It’s a true one and sad in the beginning but it has a happy ending.

 

I’m staying with my cousin Sigrid Kaland (born Halldórsson) who is a known artist here in Bergen. Her father, Sigurður was my uncle but he drowned along with the whole crew of the boat Högni IS 400 from Súðavík on May 18^th 1937. Little Sigrid was only 4 months old at the time. The boat belonged to our grandfather Halldór Guðmundsson from Grund and his cousin Grímur Jónsson in Súðavík. Sigrid’s mother was Anna Skare from Bergen, she and Guðmundur got married in the church at Eyri in Seyðisfjörður at christmas 1936. In the autumn of 1937 Anna and Sigrid returned to Bergen. Their leaving caused a lot of grief for the people at Grund, Sigrid was at that time her grandparents’ only grandchild. Sigurður had had another daughter (Agnes) before he married Anna but she was given up for adoption at birth and the family had no contact with her. She got to know her father’s family when she was grown up and we keep in good contact with her today. But back to Sigrid, after the war started in 1940 the letters from Bergen became fewer and farther apart, but we usually got a letter in december as far as I can remember and Sigrid wrote them herself. At those moments Grund was filled with joy and anticipation. My sisters and I went to Kristján Thorláksson at Saurar to ask him on behalf of our grandparents to come and read to them the letter from Bergen.

When Kitti came everyone took their place in the diningroom, each face light up with excitement. When he started reading tears started rolling from the eyes of my grandmother, grandfather and my mother. They were glad to hear from her, but also missed her very much.Many years passed and I moved to Copenhagen with my husband. As we were getting ready to return to Iceland a year later I suggested that we sailed from Copenhagen to Oslo and drive to Bergen. Then Sigrid and I could meet for the first time, then we could take the ferry to Iceland. My husvand agreeed at once. Since then I have visited Sigrid several times, for ex. with our cousin Sverrir Kolbeinsson for Sigrid’s 70th birthday in January 2007.I have asked her about her childhood but she is a modest woman and doesn’t say much. But she has told me that her mother married again when Sigrid was 8 years old. She was sometimes sad as a child. She grieved the loss of her father and missed her grandparents and other members of her father’s side of the family. I often asked her if she would come to Iceland and she always said that she would. I enventually called her and told her that I wanted to have a memorial ceremony dedicated to her father who would have become 90 years old on July 24th 2003. We would have his name engraved on a stone and placed next to our gandparents’ grave in the cemetary in Súðavík. She agreed to come if I would come and get her, so that’s what we did. To make a long story short Sigrid, along with her son, daughter, grand-daughter and son-in –law came to Iceland. We drove up to Súðavík and stayed at Grund, the house where we were both born. Sigrid slept in the room she was born in and she told that it had been a bit of an emotional experience.As I mentioned earlier, we held the memorial service in the cemetary in beautiful weather. “Calm Súðavík-weather”we call it. Geirþrúður Charlesdóttir said a few words in memory of Sigurður an other members of the family who have passed away. My sister Sigrún and I placed a reef of flowers by the stone. Our aunt Guðmunda Sigríður (Mumma) was with us that day, the only living child of Halldór and María from Grund, but she past away last summer. There were tears on many a face in the cemetary that day and I don’t think Sigrid regrets having shared it with us. But that evening at Grund, those same faces were smiling!

 

Athugasemdir

[Ásthildur Cesil Þórðardóttir, 19.6.2008 kl. 00:45]

Knús á þig elsku Svanna mín