Árdís - 01.01.1954, Page 22

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ÁRDÍS
In 1914 we intended leaving for Canada but, when World War I
broke out and my brother, who had taken the degree of M.B. Ch. B.
at Edinburgh University joined the R.A.M.C. and went to the front,
we remained on in Edinburgh. During the war we had the pleasure
of meeting a number of Canadian soldiers of Icelandic descent who
had come overseas.
In the year 1919 we left in detachments for Canada. Upon my
arrival in Winnipeg, and until my parents followed some weeks
later, I stayed at the home of my father’s first cousin, Mrs. Jon
Bjarnason, whom we called Aunt Lara. There I met a warm wel-
come from her, and from my cousins, Thea and Helga, as well as
from a number of other relations and friends. About twenty years
previously, I had met Sera Jon Bjarnason, his wife and my cousins
Thea Hermann and Fred Bjarnason, who came to see us in Edin-
burgh while on their way back to Iceland on a visit at the end of
the last century. I also had the pleasure of again meeting friends
who had visited us in Edinburgh.
The day following my arrival in Winnipeg I commenced teach-
ing art in the Earl Grey Junior High School, a post which was
waiting for me, and, shortly after, I assisted in teaching evening
classes at Kelvin High School as well.
Of Winnipeg I have recollections of spending many happy days
amongst the Icelandic people there, and of receiving much kindness
from them, and also from the Icelanders of Winnipegosis who in-
vited us to spend a summer with them.
While we lived in Winnipeg my father’s youngest brother,
Bjarni, who practised medicine in Utah, came to pay us a visit; the
two brothers had not met for fifty years, so it was a wonderful
reunion. A number of years after my uncle died, we enjoyed a
visit from his daughter, Alberta, and her husband who live in Salt
Lake City.
In 1921 I married Ralph E. A. Lloyd, a farmer in Alberta who
served overseas in World War I, retiring with the rank of Major.
My husband had served in the Militia for many years and rose to
be Lieut-Col. in the 15th Canadian Light Horse. We lived on a
farm fifteen miles south-west of Calgary.
In 1922 our first son, Benjamin Bertie Sveinbjorn, was born;
unfortunately he was never strong and he died before he was a
year old. During the years ’23 to ’26 three more children were born,