Magnus Thorkelson and Vigdis Gudmundsdóttir

A short story from Magnus B Magnus's notes:

Shortly after he (Magnus Thorkelson) married my grandmother (Vigdis Gudmundsdóttir), they moved to Audum a Vasleisu-Strond (waterless Strand), approximately 1859, into a turf house.   From there he tended fishing.  Vasleisu Strond was so called for its apparent lack of fresh water, though when the tide was out, there were pools of good spring water that was drawn and stored in barrels for household use and the animals.

Though they were not rich by any means, grandfather provided and grandmother found ample to give to the poor and needy.   To her mind, she was preparing for a place for her family and herself in the hereafter.

Sometimes her generosity exceeded all bounds.  One time grandfather came home to see a man he knew was better than they, riding off with a pack-horse laden with gifts and it angered him, so Grandmother curbed the giving for a spell.

There came however an old lady begging and grandmother sent her of with six cod, and as the old one left she turned and blessed grandmother and all her household, saying the Lord would bless her for her kindness, and if in fish, he would see to it that they were large ones.

Then shortly after six whales were stranded on grandfather's property, and friends and neighbours were invited to harvest the bounty.

Good fortune did come grandfather's way. One morning, after several days of stormy weather, the family rose to see a ship stranded on the reef out from the shore.   She bore the name James.  There was no one aboard and she was loaded with lumber.   Again, grandfather invited all to gather as much as they could, and he himself gathered enough as the ship broke up, to build a house stable and storage, also in the years that followed he built himself a fleet of small fishing boats, six in all.

The household grew from when he and grandmother married, and carried all their possession in a hand-barrow with their first born perched on top to a turf shanty, to near twenty members of serving girls, shore-men and sailors that lived with the family in the timbered and stone house.   Grandfather was a stone mason.

Some years later another ship met with nearly the same fate, only this time she was loaded with coal and had some of her crew aboard.  When the captain was forced to jetson some of the coal, grandfather had him put it on the reef. Literally he bought it on the sea bottom, and when the tide was out again, all within reach they salvaged what they could, and paid grandfather what they cold afford.

One such debt was to come in good many years later when after grandmother emigrated to Canada, an old neighbour from Iceland looked her up to pay her what he said he owned grandfather for the coal.  It came at a time when it was sorely needed.  Grandmother was a proud women and would not have taken charity.