The Icelandic Canadian - 01.03.1994, Qupperneq 21

SPRING, 1994
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
131
Sigga Christianson, M.D. 1925
Photo Courtesy: Dr. Stuart Houston
meat... no fruit, jams or jellies. We did
have a few chickens and... eggs... We
always had coffee. Mama made good
bread... (and) was smart at whatever
she did, especially dressmaking. "s
Dora also said that the children
learned to speak Icelandic when they
moved from Grand Forks because “so
many of the older people from the
settlement did not use English.” They
learned to read Icelandic by reading to
their mother from the Icelandic paper,
Heimskringla.
Dora, aged 9, and 7 year old Babs
were thrilled with living in a tent and
not having a school to go to. However,
Sigga was a dedicated student and
was desolate when she discovered
that she would have to wait for a
school to be built. In Grand Forks,
she had loved school and she had
decided that, no matter what, she was
going to go to university. A year later,
she was able to attend the new
Mountain School, where she com-
pleted her grades 7 and 8. But there
were more setbacks to be endured.
There was no high school. Fortu-
Sigga and Bill Christianson, ca. 1897
Photo Courtesy: Dr. Stuart Houston
nately, the family’s nearest neighbour
and good friend Bill Olson was able to
secure Sigga a position in his
mother’s boarding house in Winnipeg.
There she was able to work for her
room and board and attend high
school. She had no warm winter coat
and, before she could leave for
Winnipeg, $10.00 had to be found for
a coat. Her uncle Gisli Sveinsson
(Sesselja’s brother, born March 15,
1859) who lived in Loni Beach,
Manitoba, heard about his niece’s
plight and gave her the necessary
money to begin her “longed-for”
education. While at Mrs. Olson’s
boarding house, Sigga rose at 5:00
a.m. every morning to prepare break-
fast for twenty men before leaving for
school.
After high school, Sigga went on to
Normal School in Saskatoon, Sask-
atchewan and graduated in 1914. For
four years, she taught in the rural
schools near Wynyard and Bruno,
Saskatchewan in order to save
enough money for university. When
Sigga was accepted into the College of