@brittarnhild
In 1933, as the fifth of seven siblings, the first of two boys, my father was born in a little house on a small island. Later another sister and another brother was born, and Johannes and Ragna lived with their five daughters and two sons in the white house just where the river met the ocean, in Elva (the River).
All my life I´ve heard my father talk about Elva, and in my mind I had a clear vision of what the place looked like. I visited once when I was a little child and probably my vision was fed then, because when we came to Elva yesterday, it looked exactly like I remember, and at the same time so much better. It looked like the paradise my father has talked about through my whole life.
"Look BrittArnhild" was the first thing he said when we had walked down to the road to the old farm "there is the stabbur (storehouse) where I tried to climb up to the roof, fell down head first and got a concussion"
All of a sudden my 80 years old father was a boy again,
I had a wonderful time following him around, with my camera, listening to his tales.
"Look, there is where I made myself a ski jump in the winters. I was an only boy with a handful of sister, little brother Jostein was born much later. The girls didn´t much care to have me around, so I had to make my own games"
"There is the telephone my parents bought"
"The sea where I was out all by myself in the rowing boat, fishing, from I was a little boy. My father was a teacher, and during WWII he got no pay for his work, like all other teachers in Norway. It was a hard time for my mother to find food for all of us. My fishing helped a lot"
My grandparents moved to Trondheim eventually, and in 1954 they sold Elva. Bente, who lives there now, is the granddaughter of the couple who bought the placefrom grandpa Johannes and grandma Ragna. Bente, and her parents, kindly opened Elva when we came yesterday. And they had their own Elva tales to add to my father´s.
A special love for old houses on small islands was given me when I was born, nurished through my childhood.
Coming to Elva felt like coming home.
All the work and love Bente and her parents has given to Elva made it all the more special.
In my next post I´ll take you indoors.
And believe me, you really have something to look forward to!
