Lögberg-Heimskringla - 25.03.2005, Blaðsíða 6

6 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • Friday 25 March 2005
Our afi’s legacy
PHOTO: STEINÞÓR GUÐBJARTSSON
Neil Bardal and Frón President Serena Goebel enjoy the þorrablót at the Scandinavian Cul-
tural Centre in Winnipeg as Cold Front’s Björn Thoroddsen performs behind them.
Frón þorrablót a success and a sellout
Evelyn Thorvaldson
WINNIPEG, MB
The Icelandic Canadian
Frón Chapter of the INL/NA
hosted its annual þorrablót on
Saturday, March 5 at the Scan-
dinavian Cultural Centre. Frón
President Serena Goebel, along
with her committee, set the at-
mosphere in her special way of
greeting the people and oversee-
ing all the details beforehand.
They presented a delightful
meal, program and top-class en-
tertainment.
The program featured
Magnus Eliason, who recited
the popular “Winnipeg Iceland-
er” by Guttormur Guttorms-
son. Neil Bardal spoke in his
eloquent and humorous manner
and said grace before the meal.
Following the delicious
meal, the jazz trio Cold Front
entertained with comforting mu-
sic and tasteful selections for the
evening. The group consists of
three professionals: Bjöm Thor-
roddsen on guitar; Richard Gil-
lis on trumpet; and Steve Kirby
on bass. Among the pieces they
played were “Sofðu ungu ástin
mín” (Sleep my baby) and “The
Last Icelandic Chicken.”
Those in attendence showed
a notable space of 85 years, be-
tween Hrund Skulason, who at
97 years old has not missed one
Frón þorrablót, and 12 year old
young Matthew Poitres, son of
Signy Thorvaldson.
Brian Johannesson
Kitchener, ON
We never knew our afi
Agust, our mother’s father,
Agust Johannsson. The four of
us, Ken, Connie, Lenore and
Brian, grew up believing that
he had abandoned his family.
Agust died when Ken, the old-
est of us, was about one and a
half years old, so none of us
had any memory of him.
Our mother’s parents,
Agust Johannsson and Mar-
garet Palsdottir had separated
and were divorced in 1918 and
our mother Freda (Holmfridur)
never spoke of them. Thanks to
Nelson Gerrard, I recently re-
ceived a copy of Agust’s obitu-
ary from Lögberg. It described
his life and passing entirely dif-
ferently from what we had been
led to believe.
In Winnipeg in June 1916,
Agust invested 100 kronur
in shares of Eimskipfélag ís-
lands Hlutafélagið, the Icelan-
dic Steamship Company, then
about two years old. In June
1917 he transferred the shares
to his younger daughter Lillian.
After that the certificate fell
out of sight until 1944. At that
time Lillian sold the shares to
our father Konrad, along with a
dividend coupon sheet. He then
kept it with his papers until his
death in October 1968, when I
inherited it.
I in tum kept it with my oth-
er family papers, thinking that
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PHOTO: BRIAN JOHANNESSON
The original certificate show-
ing the 100-krónur share.
it was only a marvelous work
of art that should be hanging
on my wall. The certificate had
been signed by all of the Direc-
tors of Eimskip, including Arni
Eggertson, the Director repre-
senting “Westem Iceland,” a
lifelong friend of my father’s
and our neighbour on Palmer-
ston Avenue for many years.
However, a few years ago
I was reading the news on the
Intemet from the University of
Manitoba Department of Ice-
landic and read that Eimskip
had donated $500,000 to the
department. I suddenly remem-
bered the certificate, scanned a
picture of it and the dividend
sheet and sent them to Eimskip
in Reykjavík. About two weeks
later I received a reply which
said that the certificate was still
good. All we had to do was send
them the original certificate and
the papers to prove our chain of
inheritance.
Once all the legal formali-
ties were completed, we each
received a new certificate from
Eimskip representing our new
share in the company, each
worth about $2,000. Fortunate-
ly I remembered to ask them to
return the original certificate
after it had been cancelled.
Sadly, the new certificates are
computer-printed on blue paper
and are certainly not works of
art, nor are they signed by all
the company directors.
Of course, we have now
had to completely revise our
opinion of our afi Agust, who
unwittingly left us the most fas-
cinating and long-lived inheri-
tance of all.

wmm
performance realty
ð
Dianne
SlGVALDASON
987-0000
Toll Free: 1-800-267-0794
E-mail: diannes@remax.net
Visit us on the web at http://www.lh-inc.ca