The Icelandic Canadian - 01.02.2007, Side 38

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THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Vol. 60 #4
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they coincide or collide. Such a process will
not only illuminate the contributions of
individuals like Gudrun Goodman and
countless other nameless ordinary women
and men to the re-making of Canada but it
will also elucidate the shifting, often con-
tradictory, sense of what it means to be
Canadian.
Epilogue
Stella and I return to the Bildfell ceme-
tery one unseasonably cold day in July
2002. Unlike the first time, we know
where we are going but we are seeing the
cemetery with fresh eyes. We notice the
dedication on the cemetery gates and rec-
ognize the benefactor, Bjarni Thordarson,
as the partner of Gudrun Goodman.
Before, Thordarson was just a name; now
he is a character in the drama that sur-
rounded Gudbjorg Eyolfson’s birth. When
we find Goodman’s grave, Stella realizes to
our delight that the grave next to Gudrun’s
is Bjarni Thordarson’s. Like the epitaph on
the cemetery gates, we didn’t recognize the
relationship but our knowledge of the local
enables us to ‘reread’ the cemetery and add
to our understanding of this family history.
And this discovery stimulates the romantic
plot. Maybe it was applicable after all?
I wanted to see Gudrun Goodman’s
grave one more time. I say a small thanks
to her for inspiring this project and to Kon
Halldorson, her grandson, who died three
weeks after my interview with him. We
stroll among the graves, noting their
names—many of which are familiar now
not only to Stella but also to me. But Stella
and I don’t spend very much time in the
cemetery; the bitter cold and the wind
chase us away. We drive home via the
back roads. Stella comments on the poor
state of the crops—many of which are
stunted as a result of a three-year drought
that has hit many parts of Saskatchewan
and yet remarkably pockets of canola and
wheat are thriving. Our destination is the
Elfros cemetery. We walk among the
gravestones and Stella points out where
members of the Stephanson clan are buried.
Our final stop is Eric’s grave. I have a sense
of completion as the memories evoked by