Suðurgata
When I was a child, I spent many of my summers in Iceland, and much of the time during those summers at my amma and afi's house in Keflavík, on Suðurgata. My mother never identified with that house much, since her parents bought it after she married my dad and moved to the States. Instead, in her mind her childhood home is on Solvallagata.
Still, when her parents died, they willed the house to all four of their kids, my mother included. Parents do this often in wills, think somehow that one house can be split between four people, but that never works in reality. In this case, it is even less practical, because my mother's brother actually lives in the house. And he was able to arrange it so that his other siblings ceded their parts to him. So now he claims 3/4 of the house.
My mom has had her 1/4 for years now, and has even helped pay for repairs, etc. But she has never taken any advantage of it, well, except in 2006, when we had Palmer's baptism party in that house.
Last night, Palmer was asking me why we aren't going to Iceland this summer. I told him it is because we don't have anywhere to stay. I'm not going to beg my cousins to let me sleep on their couch again like I did in January, especially not with my son along as well. And I'm not going to get a hotel room in a place I once considered home.
So instead I plan to take my son to an Icelandic camp in Gimli, Manitoba. They will teach him some Icelandic, and I told him it would make things easier for when he does get to see his Icelandic cousins. But when or how or if that will ever happen, I have no idea. I am not planning on anything.
Still, when her parents died, they willed the house to all four of their kids, my mother included. Parents do this often in wills, think somehow that one house can be split between four people, but that never works in reality. In this case, it is even less practical, because my mother's brother actually lives in the house. And he was able to arrange it so that his other siblings ceded their parts to him. So now he claims 3/4 of the house.
My mom has had her 1/4 for years now, and has even helped pay for repairs, etc. But she has never taken any advantage of it, well, except in 2006, when we had Palmer's baptism party in that house.
Last night, Palmer was asking me why we aren't going to Iceland this summer. I told him it is because we don't have anywhere to stay. I'm not going to beg my cousins to let me sleep on their couch again like I did in January, especially not with my son along as well. And I'm not going to get a hotel room in a place I once considered home.
So instead I plan to take my son to an Icelandic camp in Gimli, Manitoba. They will teach him some Icelandic, and I told him it would make things easier for when he does get to see his Icelandic cousins. But when or how or if that will ever happen, I have no idea. I am not planning on anything.
Comments