My father was a great man, a good man, a smart man, an elegant man, a good husband and father. He was a devoted son, with the brightest mind of his day, was excellent at school, won awards in science and had a outstanding reputation amongst other men. He was a famous man in Iceland at his peak, respected by most and worked tirelessly through his life for everything he had and could provide for us.
Things did not come easy to him, he came from a poor background and from a small town in Iceland. In his teens his health left him due to a stomach disease and he had to live in a hospital in London for a whole year in 1949. He eventually got well by only eating vegetables for a whole year, and there were certain foods that he could not eat during his life. He faced all these things and made the best of it.
He realized that because of his poor health he could not do standard physical jobs of the 1950s and he made an effort to be the bast at school, which he did. He was always the one with the highest grades in every class and in all his schools. He told me often that having a good mind and being intelligent has not enough to succeed, because you have to work to gain the knowledge and understanding, be reading and working at it. He told me that he had written a note when he studied at university in Munich in the 1950s and he glued it over his studying desk. The note said “Nihil Sine Labore” which is Latin and it means “nothing without effort”. The purpose was to instill in himself that you will get nowhere, unless you put effort in your actions. Nothing comes from nothing. I still remind myself of this every day.
