The Icelandic Canadian - 01.04.2009, Síða 41

Vol. 62 #2
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
83
every possible hint of a relative, all to no
avail. Barbara’s voice telling me of these
efforts gave evidence of frustration and
futility, as she concluded the tale. In the
end, her decision was unerring.
She used the Trust Fund to provide the
plaque in the crematorium vault. The
Angel of the Waterfront would have a per-
manent address and eternal acknowledge-
ment.
Months later, when my research
uncovered Sigurbjorg’s letters and essays, I
found a fuller answer to my question “Who
is this Anna?”
Anna’s mother, Rosa Johnson, was an
angel in her own right, the saving grace for
Sigurbjorg’s mother, when she emigrated
to America in 1891.
Alone, handicapped by deafness
caused by a typhoid epidemic in Iceland,
seemingly abandoned by the man who was
to meet and marry her, Sigurbjorg’s moth-
er, Thuridur Jonsdottir, was taken in hand
by Rosa. She shared her rooms with
Thuridur, found her employment in a
Jewish tailoring shop, and helped her find
her feet in the Icelandic community in
Duluth, Minnesota. The two friends con-
nected again, in Mountain, North Dakota,
both now married and with children. In
May 1905, they rode the same wagon train
to a pioneer wilderness in Saskatchewan,
where they settled on neighboring home-
steads.
Their daughters, Anna and Sigurbjorg,
would have played together on the prairie,
as they were doing when Kari first saw
Anna in the spring of 1916. The Wynyard
community history Reflections ot the
Quills has a 1909 photo of Nordra School,
the two girls sitting side by side on the
steps, the first class with their young
teacher Baldur Johnson. When Rosa died
of pneumonia in 1913, no doubt Thuridur
would have become an adopted mother to
Anna.
A photo, provided to me by Kari’s
daughter Joan, speaks worlds. Here is
Sigurbjorg tenderly holding Anna’s hand.
Seems angels were in good supply,
those days.

HALLD0R5QN
ANNA H

1900 - !QQ6
A BEAUTIFUL SOUL
KNOWN AS"THE ANGEL
OF THE '.'.’AT HR FRONT'
At the Hatley Memorial Garden and
Crematorium, 2050 Sooke Road, in Victoria,
British Columbia , niche 307 bears this plaque.