The Icelandic connection - 01.06.2014, Qupperneq 9

Vol. 66 #4
ICELANDIC CONNECTION
151
information I know that he said later of her,
with fondness, that “Suppers were often late
because Mrs. Salverson was so engrossed in
writing.”
It is an unusual custom today to ask
someone to sign your autograph book,
however I think of it as early twentieth
century social media, equivalent to what
we may consider ‘posting on a person’s
Facebook page’. What is different is that
the tangible paper based writing in the
autograph emotes more than simple text
in digital space could ever do. As I read
the quotations written in the book, I was
intrigued by the cursive script of Laura, and
the depth of the darkness of blue ink that
faded in the words as the pen ran out of ink
and was dipped again to finish the entry,
and then signed and dated by her. I thought
about what the world was like when these
people’s lives and interests intersected.
Certainly their cultural backgrounds, urban
and rural communities and upbringing had
been quite different, and yet, here they were
connecting cultures and creating friendship.
Upon reflection, 1915 seems to mark
a point in time when individuals with
unique differences
in ethnicities, up-
bringings, loyalties
and influences were
part of a new group
of first generation
immigrant children.
They were brought
up in an environment
of unanticipated,
unpredictable and
unfolding dynamic
change, however,
with entirely different
cultural backgrounds,
success parameters and
rules of engagement.
I speculate that they
touched each other’s
lives as proud, intelligent, responsible,
ambitious, driven, politically, socially and
morally conscious Canadians born in
Canada; ready to launch and prepare the
way for the rest of us.
Pioneer children’s life stories are full of
inspiring accomplishment. They were where
they were as a result of the herculean efforts
of their parents to create new home-places
for their families, despite all odds. I feel I
know something about their challenges,
struggles, losses, and poignant joys because
of Laura’s award winning writing and my
family’s stories. I think it must be that
their personalities were forged with faith,
strength, resilient initiative taking, literary
richness and a fire in the core of their being.
Laura and George had undoubtedly
both experienced first-hand the stuff of
those pioneers who created homes for their
families with tenacity and hard work. It
was the time of the battle of Ypres WWI
where ‘In Flanders Fields’ was written and
Nellie McClung was visible and inspired by
the women’s rights movement in Manitoba,
which became the first province to give the
right to women to run for public office in
PHOTO COURTESY OF ARDEN JACKSON
George Alexander Jackson, CNR