Lögberg-Heimskringla - 15.06.2019, Síða 14

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14 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • June 15 2019
The Icelandic National
League started charter
flights to Iceland. The
first, in 1957, was a group
flight of 18 people and they
stayed in Iceland for eight
weeks. After that there were
three more charters organized
by the league for its members.
The first and second, in 1968
and 1971, were chaired by
Jakob Kristjanson with Mrs.
Kristin Johnson as treasurer.
The membership of the league
increased in those years as
you had to have paid your two
dollar membership to go to
Iceland. The fare was between
three and four hundred dollars
and was paid to Kristin at her
home on Dominion Street. Her
Icelandic hospitality showed
as she served coffee and sweets
with almost every payment.
The 1974 charter for
the 1,200th anniversary of
Iceland’s settlement was
a huge success. Stefan J.
Stefanson, the vice president
of the league, took over as tour
guide and Kristin continued as
treasurer. An interesting aspect
of this charter was a square
dance group, trained by Hannes
Thomasson, who travelled
on this flight and performed
in Iceland. They were Kristin
and Hannes Thomasson, Lil
and Helgi Austman, Bertha
and Erikur Hallson, Olla and
Stefan Stefanson, Marjorie
and Ted Arnason, and Lilja and
John Arnason – all members of
the Icelandic National League.
These charters were
received in Iceland with much
hospitality and were very
successful in that the following
year, 1975, eight planeloads of
Icelanders came to Manitoba
for the 100th anniversary
of the start of the Icelandic
settlement at Gimli. In 1976,
Viking Travel of Gimli began
sending charter flights to
Iceland.
The Icelandic National
League published a children’s
newspaper called Baldursbrá
in the years 1934 to 1940. Its
editor was Dr. Sigurður Júlíus
Jóhannesson and its manager
was Bergthor Emil Johnson
with the paper being sent out
from his home on Dominion
Street. Baldursbrá was a four-
page paper containing stories,
poetry, puzzles, and letters
from children. Translated
from the first issue, its
purpose was “to reach out to
young Icelanders.” It was felt
that their parents had Lögberg
and Heimskringla to read but
it was necessary to keep the
Icelandic language for the
children available for them to
read.
The Icelandic National
League had sponsored
Icelandic language classes at
the Jon Bjarnason Academy
on Saturday mornings but the
teacher did not have books or
magazines to go along with the
teaching of Icelandic. They
had books from Iceland but
wanted something published
in Manitoba. So Baldursbrá
was born, named for a
beautiful white flower that
grows in Iceland. It was owned
by the Icelandic National
League and cost 50 cents a
year. It was published weekly
over the winter months, from
October to April, and then in
later years every other week
all year round. The league
chose A.P. Jóhannsson, J.J.
Bíldfell, and B.E. Johnson as
the first committee with Dr.
S.J. Jóhannesson as editor, all
working without pay.
So you think after the treatment
is all over that you are free and
clear. Done. Well, no – not so
easy. There’s more. My naturopath
was trying to build up my immune
system and balance my hormones. I
had previously been taking all kinds
of vitamins and herbal supplements at
different periods throughout treatment
on advice from her and my oncologist
at Cancer Care. Most of the time they
didn’t agree. Now it was time to discuss
tamoxifen. The pathology of my cancer
showed that it was extremely estrogen-
fed. The naturopath would never tell
me what to do, but said that if it were
her she wouldn’t take it. The oncologist
at Cancer Care suggested blocking my
hormones with tamoxifen. Somehow
that didn’t seem quite right. How was
I supposed to get my body back to
health if I was supposed to suppress my
hormones?
There were other options like taking
DIM, which is made from cruciferous
vegetables. I had previously taken this
after chemo, on my naturopath’s advice,
and it is supposed to give a healthy
balance of estrogen and testosterone.
I’ve been told that there are still trials
being done to see if there are proven
results in humans. I noticed in 2017
that Cancer Care was looking at less
harmful alternatives but still would
not recommend anything other than
hormone blockers and vitamin D. So
again, I had to make more decisions
with conflicting choices about my life
expectancy.
Most people would just listen to
their doctors, but blocking hormones
and dealing with not-so-great side
effects didn’t seem like the right way
to me. It seemed like the decisions on
what to do just kept on coming. How
do you know what is the right choice?
I had been used to flowing through
life never worried about my future
and now I found myself constantly
concerned. Maybe at this stage of the
game the best way was to let go of all
the attention to cancer and just focus
on being healthy. I told myself not to
give my attention to the disease, and to
give my attention to health. I’ve heard
the expression, “What you give your
attention to, will grow.” I wanted to
be healthy, so that’s where I decided to
focus my attention.
Just finishing radiation and suffering
with a bad cold, I felt my body needed
a break. So, for a while I resisted the
concept of tamoxifen. But as time went
on I began to soften towards it. What I
was really hoping for was a better, safer
alternative than Cancer Care would
recommend using. But that didn’t
happen. Four months later I started to
take it. The side effects could be brutal
so I crossed my fingers that I would be
one of the lucky ones that only suffered
mildly.
The usual stuff started to come up
– hot flashes, eyesight changes, muscle
and joint pain, and pressure in my head.
It wasn’t brutal but it wasn’t “healthy”
either.
That new flower that was struggling
to grow was having a tough time. It was
like being sprayed every day with weed-
killer. I just wanted to grow and heal.
Was that too much to ask?
TAMOXIFEN AND MEMEL’S MOMENTS
Melanie Johannesson
Riverton, MB
Charter flights and children’s literature part of the INL legacy
Lilja Arnason
Gimli, MB
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Artwork by Slyencer
Sewing by SEAMS&BEYOND
Have the elder
races halted?
Do they droop and end
their lesson, wearied, ov
there beyond the seas?
We take up the task
eternal, and the bur
and the lesson,
Pioneers! O pioneers!
– Walt Whitman
“"These charters were
received in Iceland with
much hospitality and were
very successful."