The Icelandic Canadian - 01.09.2008, Blaðsíða 11

Vol. 61 #4
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
149
back home by Oscar of St. Catherine Ont.
and Alda of Calgary; another old chest has
been brought home by Valdine of St.
Louis, MO and a cedar chest from Inga’s
home in White Rock, B.C.
As we walk into the living room Lorna
Floyd, in period costume, greets us as she
sits on the chesterfield, knitting. Above the
chesterfield is Mother and Dad’s beautiful
wedding picture, brought back by Oscar.
The piano has been sent back by Lynne
Taillefer from St. Adolphe; the beautiful
white cotton curtains, replicas of Mother’s,
made by Thordis Wilson and Olof
Sigurdson now adorn the windows; family
snapshots have been developed, enlarged,
framed , mounted and tastefully displayed
by Lorraine and Garnett Betts of Victoria,
B.C.
In the kitchen we see the long table
which Mother and Dad had brought with
them when they moved from Foam Lake,
Saskatchewan to Vidir, Manitoba. Tara
Barkman, our great-great niece, sits on a
chair by the table, hand-churning a small
butter churn with the help of her daughter
Alysse. She is anxiously wondering if the
cream will ever turn to butter. She keeps on
turning, then smiles happily when she sens-
es that the cream is gradually beginning to
curdle. Later we are able to sample the but-
ter. As we leave the kitchen we see
Mother’s treadle machine under the sunny
windows, the old waffle iron on the stove
and the washing machine in one corner of
the kitchen.
As we walk upstairs to the bedrooms I
am reminded of how we used to crouch in
the landing, listening to stories of the hul-
dufolk and trolls of Iceland, as told by an
old neighbour of ours. If our parents heard
us laughing we would scurry back to bed.
The master bedroom in our house has
been furnished with a beautifully restored
bedroom set, a gift from Richard Nordal,
in memory of his late wife, Jona Nordal
who had restored the set.
While we were in the bedroom a group
of school children walk in. While walking
through the bedroom one of the young
boys said: ‘What is that big cup doing
under the bed?’ There were titters of
amusement amongst the elders in there as
many of us were reminded only too vivid-
ly of the tiresome task of removing those
cups, washing them thoroughly, then plac-
ing them under the bed again for the next
night.
The four bedrooms upstairs have been
furnished with our old dressers brought
from Invermere by Margaret; others have
been donated by people in the community.
Patchwork quilts, made by Mother for all
her daughters have been returned and
spread across the bottom part of each bed
upstairs. Dad’s small office upstairs, has
been furnished with his old oak desk, sent
by Anna.”
Bjorn and Lillo Sigvaldason and family
of Bernie, Terry, Gail and Lome, were the
last members of the Sigvaldason family to
live in the house. As Gail and Lome
walked through the house they were vivid-
ly reminded of the years they lived there
when they were growing up. In reminisc-
ing about the house Gail said: “When I was
growing up in this house as a child I always
thought of it as a big house. Now, forty-
four years later, as I walk through the
house it seems so much smaller than when
I was a child. I remember so many things
about this house - the big kitchen, and I
remember exactly where all the furniture
was placed. Now, the only confusing thing
to me is that we never used the front
entrance, because our home was a farm
home where the back door was always used
for entering the house.”
It was a weekend for the Sigvaldason
clan to gather together on the Sunday for a
Family Brunch, organized by Barbara
Orbanski and Elma Kozub. After the
hearty Brunch there was a time to remem-
ber Einar, who had recently passed away,
with Margaret and Kristjana sharing their
loving memories of Einar with family
members.
The afternoon program began with a
slide presentation by Wally Johannson,
who had travelled to Churchbridge,
Mother’s birthplace, along with his friend
Hal Sigurdson, a former sports reporter.
They had photographed numerous pictures
of the area where Mother grew up and
these slides, along with an interesting pre-