Árdís - 01.01.1964, Qupperneq 42

40
ÁRDÍ S
about fit the little lady.” He held up a pair of yellow slippers
trimmed with a leather rosette on the vamp.
Helga held her breath. Her mother shook her head. “I am
afraid these are not sturdy enough for school.” She looked down
and saw her daughter’s pleading eyes. Helga grasped her hand,
“Oh please, won’t you buy the slippers. I won’t wear them when
the road is muddy. Please, DEAR mamma.” Maria smiled, “Very
well. We will buy the slippers.”
Now Helga did indeed feel like a princess. While the wool was
being weighed and tied on the wagon she put on her new slippers
and walked gingerly into the house. They did not feel quite as
soft and comfortable as the homemade sheepskin-slippers she
had been wearing but they were the most beautiful shoes in the
whole world!
The following Sunday the family went to the “Meeting-House”
that served as a church and community centre. Helga hoped her
friends would notice her slippers!
After the service people gathered in groups exchanging the
news of the week. Some walked in the graveyard, close by and
paused at the grassy mounds where wooden crosses stood like
sentinels on duty. Here and there white-painted picket fences en-
circled a grave or a family plot as if to discourage trespassing feet.
Summer passed quickly and soon it was time for school. Helga’s
father went away with other men from the community to work at
harvesting and threshing till freeze-up.
Helga missed her friend Sigga. They had cried when Sigga
came to say goodbye. She was now living with her aunt in a far-off
place called Winnipeg. Helga had not understood why she had not
been allowed to visit in the log cabin after Sigga’s mother became
bed-ridden. Then one day Sigga’s father had come and told mother
something. Everyone was sad and Helga began to cry. She sat
on her mother’s lap and as she felt the comforting arms around
her she felt better.
Early in the fall Helga got a bad cold. She felt hot and feverish
at night and coughed a lot. Maria used all the home remedies she
had but to no avail. She wished her husband would return soon.
If only she could get Helga to a doctor, but the nearest one was
thirty miles from the settlement.