Lögberg-Heimskringla - 13.02.2004, Blaðsíða 12

page 12 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • 13 February 2004
“Any maris death diminishes me, for I am involved in mankind... No man is an island, entire ofhimself. ”—John Donne • “Maður er manns gaman. ”—Hávamál
Spotlighting lives lived and milestones in the lives of Icelandic North Americans.
Nanna Olafson
Eric Olafson
Wynyard, SK
ur Mom, amma and
langamma died peacefully
on December 9, 2003 surround-
ed by her family.
Nanna Gauti was bom on
October 23, 1917, the seventh
child of Aslaug and Thorstein
Gauti. Nanna was grateful to
belong to a close-knit family of
ten children. She grew up and
worked on the family daiiy farm
four miles north of Wynyard in
the Grandy District.
Nanna attended Normal
School in Saskatoon and taught
in the era of the one-room
schoolhouse. While teaching at
Mimer she met and married
Johannes (Joe) Olafson. Theirs
was a lifetime partnership in
raising a family, farming, com-
munity involvement, and over-
seas development work.
Mom was fíercely devoted
to her family, and was uncondi-
tionally supportive of us all.
Her grandchildren dearly loved
their amma and looked forward
to the gatherings of family and
friends which Mom promoted at
the drop of a hat. Her consider-
ation of others extended beyond
her immediate and extended
families. She was involved in
community activities, and her
community extended from the
Dafoe, Kandahar and Wynyard
districts to as far away as Belize
and Tanzania. Mom was very
proud of her Icelandic heritage
and culture, and she dedicated
considerable time and energy to
its promotion and preservation.
One project dear to her heart
was the dedication of the
Wynyard Unitarian Church as a
heritage site.
Raised in a large family
during the Depression, Nanna
developed a social conscience
which expressed itself in her
involvement in the cooperative
movement and in politics with
the CCF and the NDP (she was
very proud of her life member-
ship in the NDP). Nanna was a
committed pacifist and declared
her home a nuclear-free zone.
She performed many non-tradi-
tional duties to support her fam-
ily and community. Nanna
served on numerous committees
and was a board member of sev-
eral non-profít and community
organizations. She was a life-
long member and supporter of
the Unitarian Church.
Nanna’s artistic side was
expressed in such things as her
singing, crocheting, knitting,
ceramics and pottery. She was a
keen and accomplished
Scrabble player and showed no
mercy regardless of who you
were. She loved to travel and
travelled extensively. Her gra-
cious presence and endearing
kindness impressed any and all
who met her.
Nanna’s husband Joe died
in 1981, and her dear son
Leonard died in 1999. She was
predeceased by her siblings
Kristjanna Bjarnason, Jennie
Laxdal, Esther Johnson, John
Gauti, Harold Gauti and Edna
Watson. Nanna is survived by
her sisters Margaret Davidson,
Kristrun (Kay) Gauti and Erla
Duclos, and sisters-in-law Mary
Gauti, Beatrice Olafson,
Margaret Olafson and Thelma
Olafson.
Celebrating Nanna’s life are
her four children and nine
grandchildren: Joanne Olafson
and Everett Hewitt, Eric and
Karen Olafson (Marea Olafson,
Stefan and Karen Olafson),
Elaine and Eugene Strozen
(Lisa Moskal, Mark Strozen,
Tim Strozen), Edie and Marty
Leier (Cai'a Leier and Warren
Hofer, Ryan Leier), Len’s chil-
dren (Kristjana Olafson, Kent
Olafson) as well as fíve (nearly
six) great-grandchildren.
A Memorial gathering was
held on Saturday, December 13
at the Wynyard Unitarian
Church to celebrate Mom’s life.
Private interment will be at a
later date at the Kandahar
Cemetery. In lieu of fíowers,
the family requests that dona-
tions be made to Golden Acres
Nursing Home or the Unitarian
Church in Wynyard, The
Kandahar Cemetery Fund, or a
charity of choice.
Hrefna Edna Borgford
Peacefully on January 28,
2004, Edna Borgford
passed away at Misericordia
Place Personal Care Home at
the age of eighty-seven. All her
children are thankful that they
were able to visit with her and
say their good-byes during the
week prior to her death.
Edna was a devoted mother
and amma. She was born
December 16, 1916 to Jon and
Oddny Asgeirson in the west
end of Winnipeg, where she
lived most of her life. Art and
music were an important part of
that life and she imparted this
love to her children. An artist in
her own right, she won several
awards for her work.
Edna had a strong sense of
justice, belonging to the Voice
of Women, Women’s Model
Parliament and the CCF / NDP
women’s groups as well as
advocating for numerous causes
through letter writing.
As a member of the
Icelandic community in the
west end of Winnipeg, she con-
tinued to study Icelandic into
her eighties and was a founding
member of Betelstaður Seniors’
Housing Co-op where she lived
for ten years.
Edna was a life long mem-
ber of the Unitarian Church.
The church honoured her by
having her break the ground for
the new church on Wellington
Crescent. It was at the church
that she met her husband Skapti
(Scotty) Borgford with whom
she had four children, Solveig
Christie (Murray Matthes),
Karen Botting (Dwight), Lara
Mazur (Harvey LaRocque) and
Thor Borgford (Kelley Arnott),
seven grandchildren,
Ingrid Botting (Rick Rennie)
and Carla Botting, Johanna and
Dylan Mazur, Jonas, Lara and
Sofía Borgford, and one great-
grandchild, Charlie Rennie.
Edna and her family enjoyed
many summers together on the
family property at Arnes.
She was predeceased by her
husband, her parents, her three
brothers, Asgeir, George and
Paul, sister, Joan Parr, and sis-
ters-in-law Nellie and Gladys.
Surviving are her children and
grandchildren, her sister and
brother-in-law Thora ahd Ron
duBois, brother-in-law, Jack
Parr, sisters-in-law, Marj
Asgeirson, Kay Asgeirson,
Elizabeth Borgford, Gudrun
Pesnicak, and many nieces and
nephews.
The family wishes to thank
the staff at both Misericordia
Health Centre and Misericordia
Place for the wonderful support
they gave both Edna and the
family over the past three years
and her lifelong friend Fanney
Stefannson.
A family service will be
held at the Unitarian Church on
Saturday, January 31. In lieu of
flowers, donations may be
made to the Unitarian Service
Committee, 56 Sparks St., Ste
705, Ottawa, ON, KIP 5B1, or
a charity of your choice.
Neil Bardal Inc. 949-2200.
As I was wandering
o ’er the green
Not knowing where I went
By chance I saw
a pleasantscene
Tlie cottage of content.
Anonymous
Grimolfur Brynjolfson
Grimolfur Brynjolfson
passed away on January
18, 2004 in Riverton. Grimsi,
as he was known, was bom in
Hecla on September 30, 1928
in the home that his mother
and father, Marus and Vilborg
Brynjolfson, had recently
built, now known as Guesta
Hus.
He was predeceased by
his wife Collie and his par-
ents. He leaves surviving his
two sisters and brothers-in-
law, Sylvia and Stefan
Sigurdson and Solveig and
Norman Riddell; as well as his
niece, Elaine Sigurdson and
his nephews, Eric Sigurdson,
his wife Wendy and Glenn
Sigurdson and his wife
Maureen.
Grimsi was an unsung
hero. He lived his life quietly,
always putting others before
himself. He was a profoundly
decent man, who touched the
lives of many with his gentle
warmth. He drew on his deep
inner strength in the many
lonely hours he spent on his
dragline, constructing
drainage and roads into
Northern Manitoba communi-
ties through some of the most
difficult terrain of wilderness,
muskeg, and swamp imagina-
ble. In the winter he fished
with his father Malli, with
whom he had a deep and spe-
cial bond until his passing in
1973.
In more recent years, as
he phased out of the construc-
tion business, he returned to
the life of a Lake Winnipeg
fishernian into which he had
been born.
Grimsi had lived in
Riverton since his family
moved there in 1942. He com-
pleted Grade 12 at Uniled
College in Winnipeg. His
early years in the construction
industry were with Monarch
Construction. He later formed
his own company, Nordic
Construction Ltd. which he
ran very successfully for over
25 years.
Although his work took
him across the Province, often
to remote locations, Riverton
was always his home base.
His home along the banks
of the Icelandic River, easily
accessible to Lake Winnipeg,
was always at the centre of his
life, and became all the more
so after his marriage to Collie
in 1980.
Please see Grimolfur
Brynjolfson on page 13
<m \b unn* mn* ^ni* mv m u rwmr Njrmifm ^ rim d nn 'M'wnw