Obituary of Helen Marjorie Eiriksson

EIRIKSSON: Helen Einarson was born in Winnipegosis, Manitoba on June 24, 1927, the fourth of six children to Siggi and Vigga. Brothers Sigurjon, Mindy, and Leo predeceased her. Connie and Victor were born later, and survive her. Helen's grandparents were part of a wave of Icelandic immigration to the Lake Winnipeg area of Manitoba. They were fisherman and farmers. The Einarson family lived in Winnipegosis and as a child, Helen lived in Winnipegosis and Red Deer Point. Her father left the family when Helen was still a young girl. As an older sister, Helen provided a lot of care for her two younger siblings. Helen first met Kris Eiriksson on Red Deer Point when she was a school girl. Kris lived on a farm a few miles apart from the Einarsons. After Kris returned from World War II, they married in September of 1946. They made a hard living in the North where Kris worked in the Sherridon mine, before moving to Brandon in 1949. Their first two children, Elaine and Sig, were born there in 1947 and 1948. Son Brian arrived in 1954. One of the messages Helen passed to her children was the importance of receiving a good education. Later, Helen spent many years volunteering in schools, providing hearing and vision screening, and lunch hour supervision. As her older children graduated and went off to higher education, Helen recognized she was going to miss having young ones around. Through adoption, in 1968 Gordon became part of the family and in 1969, so did Thor. In time, through those five children, Helen became a grandmother to 18, and a great grandmother to 22. Helen loved being a grandmother and being involved in their lives. Her children remember her cooking, and with fondness, her baking. Helen used to make the traditional Icelandic dishes of her childhood. These included Vinatarta and Ponnukokur, which they all loved; Skyr, a sort of yogurt and Rullupylsa. When her bread was baking, the kids would get the butter out and fight over who got to have the crust. Cinnabon had nothing on Grandma's cinnamon buns and her family all craved her peanut butter and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Helen was proud of her Icelandic heritage and was honoured with a lifetime membership in the Icelandic League of North America, and in the Icelandic Club of Western Manitoba. She was also active in the Westman Multicultural Club. At home her hobbies included cross-stitch, knitting, latch hooking, embroidery and crocheting; skills that she learned as a young girl at the Presbyterian Church in Winnipegosis. She loved to dance when she was younger; and she enjoyed a good game of cribbage or rummy with the grandkids. She and Kris had a great garden that covered one of the four lots the house is situated on. All that gardening meant hours of shelling peas, shucking corn, hilling potatoes, pulling weeds; and when it all worked out, canning and preserving on Helen's part. Helen's health had been affected for many years by arthritis and lupus. That possibly contributed to the very painful and disabling ulcer on her leg. In fact, she was facing amputation of the leg. Despite the seriousness of the situation, Helen was looking forward to the relief that would bring. Compounding this, her vision was also fading. However much she was looking forward to it, this surgery was not meant to be. Helen started to get sick at home on Wednesday, February 17 and was taken to hospital with a previously undiagnosed stomach ulcer. Despite the efforts of the surgical team and staff in the Emergency Room and Intensive Care Unit, Helen passed away that evening. Predeceased by her grandson John in 1984, mother Vigga in 1998, husband Kristjan in 2000, and great-grandson Jamshid on January 22 of this year, Helen leaves to mourn her passing her children: Elaine (Dave) Rutledge, Sig (Jan), Brian (Laila), Gordon (Gillian) and Thor (Naida). Grandma's death is also mourned by her grandchildren: Karla, Angela, Sarah and Graham; Victor, Jeff and Allan; Jamal, Lua, and Jalal; Zachary, Lauren and Kristen; and Amber, Ruby, Mylissa, Brandy and Jaime; and 21 great grandchildren. Helen also leaves her sister Connie and brother Victor (Loretta) Einarson and her many in-laws, nieces and nephews and by her very good friends, Doreen and Bob Isleifson, and Seema and Terry Roberts and family. She will be missed by the Icelandic Club of Western Manitoba, and by her many friends. A Celebration of Helen's Life was held Tuesday, February 23, 2016 at 10:30 am at Brockie Donovan Funeral Home. Helen was interred with her husband Kris, at the Brandon Cemetery. Friends may provide memorial donations to The Lupus Society of Manitoba, or The Arthritis Society, both located at #150-386 Broadway, Winnipeg, MB, R3C 3R6.