The Icelandic Canadian - 01.02.2007, Blaðsíða 34

160
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Vol. 60 #4
actually died right then and there.45
These visceral images describing the
day, the flies, and ‘being ripped apart’ draw
a graphic picture of Gudbjorg
Sveindsdottir’s death, suggesting that this
story has been repeatedly told within the
family and has been imprinted in their
memory. It recalls a dramatic turn in the
Eyolfson/Halldorson family history and
represents a key moment in constituting
the family’s identity. Another striking
feature of Halldorson’s story is that it
refers to the role of the father—both bio-
logical and adoptive as it turns out.
Halldorson explains in part the absence of
the father, Konrad Eyjolfson, at the time of
his daughter’s birth but his narrative does
not explain why the father did not raise the
child when he returned. According to
Stella, it was not unusual for Icelandic fam-
ilies to adopt other people’s children when
there were too many. In this case, given
that Konrad Eyjolfson worked on the rail-
road, was away for long periods of time,
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already had two children die previously,
and then his wife, he may have felt that it
was better to leave Gudbjorg with
Goodman. Finally, in trying to sort out
Mr. Halldorson’s grandparents, I realized
that he had two sets of grandparents,
Konrad Eyjolfson and Gudbjorg
Sveinsdottir, the biological parents of his
mother, and Bjarni Thordarson and
Gudrun Goodman.
Biggs: Do you remember any stories
that your mom told you about her,
Gudrun Goodman?
Halldorson: Well, not too much, but
she sort of got to be a good friend of Bjarni
Thordarson. I don’t believe that they ever
married but that was home to her when she
wasn’t on the road doing midwifery. That
was the way it was until they died.46
This revelation of a life-long partner
stands in stark contrast to Lindal’s repre-
sentation of Gudrun Goodman and to her
obituary because both texts omitted men-
tion of her relationship with Bjarni
Thordarson. The life-long partnership is
however mentioned in the Halldorson
family history (the family into which
Eyjolfson later married) as published in
They Came From Many Lands, the history
of the Foam Lake area referred to earlier.
A comparison of Halldorson’s story with
the family history and the obituary reveal
nuanced inflections of meaning in Gudrun
Goodman’s life history.
Many of the details recounted by
Halldorson and in the published family
history are similar. The published family
history relates that Gudbjorg Eyjolfson
had been staying with Gudrun Goodman
awaiting the arrival of her baby while her
husband Konrad, who had taken a job
building the railroad, was away. The
story continues:
Gudbjorg was watering oxen when
one swung its head and gored her severely.
She knew that she was dying and asked
Gudrun Goodman to save the child. Mrs.
Eyjolfson died and the child was named
Gudbjorg Eyjolfson. Konrad Eyjolfson
did not learn for some months what had