María Martha Elísabet Stolpmann

My mother was born in Flötenstein, Kreis Schlochau in West Prussia on March 8th 1935.

Her youth
My mother had a good youth until the first world war started. She has told me several stories from her life as a little girld and what stands out is her love for the animals on their farm. She was in charge of taking care of the farm goose. Since that time goose and cats have been her favorite animals.

A refugee at the age of 11
At the age of 11 she became a refugee along with her mother and 8 brothers and sister and was forced by the Russian army to leave home and walk 35 miles to a destination were a container train transported them and other refugees to Germany for several days without food and water. A year before my grandfather had died because no medical aid was available due to the war. The family was being told that if they did not obey they were under the threat of being killed by the army which had already killed all the life stock belonging to their farm.

From Germany to Iceland
My mother arrived in Iceland on October 12th 1949. The reason for traveling to Iceland was that two of her aunt´s had become Saint. Joseph nuns and were conducting missionary work in the Landakot hospital in Reykjavík grounded by the Catholic Church at that time. There was an opportunity for my mother to study to become a nurse which she did at that hospital.

She traveled on a vessel from Germany to Akranes in Iceland from where the vessel brought her to Reykjavík. During the time she was at the Landakot hospital she met my father Árni Gunnlaugsson and they became husband and wife June 29th of June 1957. My mother served as a nurse for a long time and has been very active within the Catholic Church in Iceland all her life.

 
My mother with her brother Hans Stolpmann
 
Her love for goose never left her