The Icelandic Canadian - 01.06.2005, Blaðsíða 26

152
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Vol. 59 #4
books from established Icelandic clubs,
$6,000 from the Albright Society, garden
plants and trees from Ocean Park
Nurseries owned by the Sam Johnson fam-
ily. Christmas trees from Walter Menne
whose mother was a resident at Hofn,
money from C.P. Air Employees Fund,
estate funds from Cecilia Reid and families
who had parents as residents at Hofn.
All in all, Hofn became a repository of
the the generosity of Icelandic families and
other groups as well.
Special gifts to Hofn have included the
Icelandic flag flown at Hofn, donated by
Sella Baldwinson in memory of her hus-
band Fusi, a World War I veteran, to whom
a flag had always been an important sym-
bol. Another special gift was a curio cabi-
net from Bertha Jones who was a resident
at Hofn. This became known as Aunt
Bertha’s Curio Cabinet and housed various
memorabilia. People would ask Bertha,
who was born in Iceland, how she came by
the name Jones. When she had gone
through immigration she was asked what
her name was and replied, “ Bertha
Jonsdottir.” At this the immigration officer
looked nonplussed and asked, “ Jones?”
and thenceforth she became known as
Bertha Jones.
Another lasting gift to Hofn was a
beautiful, polished Grandfathers Clock,
donated by Lil Summers in memory of her
husband Leifur, who had served as
President of the Hofn Society Board at one
time. The clock had been his retirement gift
from co-workers at Eaton’s in Winnipeg.
One of the Hofn residents, Mrs. Gladys
Screeton, donated $31,000 towards the
purchase of a bus for tours and outings,
with the balance of the bus cost financed by
Solskin.
By the late 1970s numerous Old Folks
Homes in the Vancouver area were coming
under the Government Medical Plan. The
Scandinavian Homes, including Hofn,
were opposed to this, as a group, but by
1981 further renovations were required at
Hofn to allow for Extended Care. In 1983
Hofn officially became a long-term care
facility, under government subsidy for
sixty four residents and an increased staff.
Now social workers and activity co-ordi-
nators looked after entertainment for the
residents. For a while it looked as if
Solskin’s role of holding birthday parties
and entertainment for the residents had
become redundant. Fortunately, this did
not happen as the Solskin Ladies hosted
innumerable events at Hofn, such as a
Luncheon reception for President Kristjan
Eldjarn of Iceland and his entourage in
1975 and an afternoon reception when
President
Vigdis Finnbogadottir visited
Vancouver. In fact, Solskin continued to
provide entertainment for the residents
parties as well as donating funds through
casinos, for numerous costly projects at
Hofn.
A special event took place at Hofn in
August of 1976 when residents Clara
Mathilda Balcombe and Earl Batstone were
married at Hofn, with a B.C. Television
camera crew on hand to film this notewor-
thy event which was shown on television.
On another day, a sunny, spring morning
in 1979, the residents at Hofn heard the