The only mothers it is safe to forget on Mother's Day are the good ones. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960

Yep it's Mothers day tomorrow so I figured that on behalf of myself and my siblings... Good looking lot don't you think... (maybe not) anyway I figured my mum deserved a bit of time on my blog.  Mum and dad were quite productive in terms of producing genes for future generations.  I, unfortunately, did not full fill my role in adding to the gene pool but figure that my brothers and sisters have done a good enough job that there was no need for me to try and add to that.  Between the four of them they have produced 11 rather wonderful 

looking people... this photo does not do them justice, in fact - Maja the hero is missing....as are ofcourse the Icelandic contingent as - well they weren't in Perth that Christmas.  I just love this photo hence it is being posted again...

Mum was born on the 23rd of August 1927, in a turf house in a valley not far from here, which now has no inhabitants.  Life was tough in those days, her happiest memories are of getting material for a dress... she didn't have dolls to play with or a room of her own, her schooling was limited - a few weeks a year until she was about 12, then she started to work for herself, first as an au pair here in town and then when she was 16 as a house servant in Reykjavik.  Obviously this was during the war years when Iceland was occupied by the allies.  At this time a lot of young women were involved with the soldiers stationed here, mum was a naive country girl and thankfully she mixed with the Templers,  The advocates of non drinking and smoking, so although it was all happening around her and she has told me many a tale of the girls that she knew in Rvk, she somehow managed to avoid most of the temptations or remained blissfully unaware of them.  She had some bad experiences but those she overcame and came back to Skagafjord and somehow let dad into her life.  Her one proviso being that if he wanted to have any chance with her he would have to stop smoking and drinking... He did.  Boy am I glad that he had more will power than I have.  They got married on mum's birthday on the 23rd of August 1947, she wore a red dress.

This photo was taken on the day that we arrived in West Australia,  She was 41 years of age, still on board the ship that had taken 4 weeks to get there, she had with her 4 children from the ages of 5 to 18, you can only imagine the thoughts that had been going through her mind.... but does this image reveal any of those - to me it looks like someone ready to take on the challenges of what she was about to face and smiling...  Amazing.

This was the life she knew - snow, cold, barren landscape  - but the smile is always there.

I think that a lot of her inner strength came from her mother.  She too had had it rough, I think that I have already blogged about my amma before.  She too always had a smile on her face, no matter how tough things were.  I am privileged to have these women as my forebears.  Strong, happy, resourceful women that took what life gave them and made something of it.  They instilled in us a belief in ourselves and our own true worth.  They laughed and they cried and they cared - not for themselves but for everyone that they came into contact with.

I am twice blessed as my amma on my dad's side was another woman of steel.. Unnur amma, she too had a tough time as a kid.   You can see behind that smile that there is a private joke going on.  The only regret in my life is that I did not get to know her better, I think that she could have taught me alot.

I had to include this photo- it's my brother Hilmars wedding, her lovely boy was getting married - see how happy she is dancing with her darling...   I used to always be jealous of mums affection for him, but as I grew up I realised that it was totally understandable - he is just the nicest guy, (and forgiven for bad taste at the age of 21 and hey it was the 70's)

Today like always mum never sits and watches tv without having something in her hands, whether it be knitting or crocheting and more often than not her cat is sitting on her lap as well.  This is an old photo of mum with my brother Jon's cat Puss.  All animals love mum and mum loves them all as well.  Freyja and I would be totally lost without her.

This photo of Unnur's kids sums it up!

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