The Icelandic Canadian - 01.06.1982, Síða 34

32
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
SUMMER, 1982
ON PUGET SOUND
From the Memoirs of Dr. Valdimar J. Eylands
(Concluded)
Once I interrupted the good company of a
farm couple I visited. I was on my way
home from Blaine to Bellingham when I
stopped at a farmhouse near the road to chat
with an elderly couple who were very faith-
ful members of my Blaine church. We sat in
the front room and chatted after the in-
evitable cup of coffee. All of a sudden, two
apparently well-fed mice came running out
on the floor and started to play. No one
present seemed to think this was anything
unusual, but the farmer said, “Why are you
coming NOW, you little devils?”.
Sometimes they thought my preaching
was too soft and sentimental. Once, after a
service, my wife and I were invited to the
home of one of our leading members for
refreshments. The man of the house was
known for his frank and sometimes rather
crude expressions. He now started to tease
me, as we sat around the coffee table, saying
that my sermon had been soft-soap, and not
much spice in it. “I want,” he said, “to
hear a strong, realistic sermon about hell
and the devil.” His wife, sitting opposite
him, snapped “It would no doubt be very
good for you to hear about that. .
A host of memories crowd me when I
think back on those days. Some are sad or
silly, humorous or solemn. Late one after-
noon I was asked to come to Blaine in a
hurry to settle a domestic quarrel. A couple
were expressing their opinion of each other
in such a loud voice that the neighbours
feared they might lay hands on each other. I
did not have much faith in my ability to
settle a domestic fight of such intensity but,
of course, I went over there. When I got to
the house no one responded to my ringing or
knocking, and so I walked in. There the
couple sat, very shamefaced, as far from
each other as the walls of the house allowed.
They responded only reluctantly to my
questions, but admitted that their honey-
moon was over quite awhile ago, and that
they did not get along too well. I sat with
them for awhile, and said whatever I thought
a minister should say under such circum-
stances, and had a closing devotion with
them. They embraced, and said they would
forgive each other and forget. Whether they
did or for how long I do not know. I never
heard of further trouble between them.
But this trip almost ended in a disaster for
me. On the way home I stopped at the home
of friends along the road, and the housewife
gave me a tinful of eggs which I put on the
back seat of the car. But on the way I lost
control of the car on an ice-covered bend on
the road, and landed in the ditch upside
down, the eggs, meanwhile, coming over
me like a shower. I was thrown into the roof
of the car with considerable force and sus-
tained a back injury which I had to have
treated for many months. The car was also
damaged. But that which I remember most
clearly from the whole episode was the ex-
pression on the face of my wife when I
entered the house. I had left home for this
trip dressed in a neat, dark suit, and wearing
an overcoat of a similar color. What the
good wife saw when I entered that night was
certainly not a very neat looking husband
but one all tom and bespattered from head to
foot, looking pale as a ghost. Remembering
the errand on which I was, she drew her own
conclusions immediately from the evidence
and exclaimed, “What is this man? Did
you, the minister, get into a fight?”
About this time a law was enacted by the
United States Congress granting all senior
citizens, above a certain age, a small annual
pension. But only citizens were eligible. In
the Icelandic community there were a num-