ÁHKKU - MY GRANDMOTHER

Our grandmother Inga died in 2013. It is hard to explain what she meant for me. She was a person who held our family together, cause her home (Ravnastua / Gárdin) was a meeting place for the family and also tourists. She was a remarkable person. I don´t think anyone who met her could ever forget her. She always had the most memorable comments to things. My aunts had an idea to write a book about her, and it would be a great book to have!

My grandmother lived until she was 93, so she had a long life which she loved. She lived in Gárdin over 50 years of her life - and received a silveraward from the king for running this mountain house. She gave birth to 9 children, my mother included, and she was married to her cousin Julius - who unfortunately died when I was just a child. He died because of a heart failure while he was in the mountains and went to rest beside his tractor. She didnt want anyone else but him, so she lived alone for the rest of her life. 30 years approximatly she lived as a widow.   
To tell you about her is a task too big to even start, so I will stick to telling you about the song.



I am travelling alot in my work, and the last 10 years I have not seen much of her. But it happened so that my mother called to tell me that she was very ill, and that I should go visit her. The next chance I had I went to see her, and that same day she died. The next day in the car driving back to Alta from Karasjok I wrote this song to her. My grandmother was christian and I often herd her sing psalms, so the song I wrote her fits perfectly that way.

My cousin and I made an attempt to sing this in her funeral. I unfortunately started crying and could barely get out a tone. My cousin Eva Jeanette Iversen was luckily there to help me, but I could still not sing it well.

And the unfortunate event happened that my uncle - one son of the same grandmother passed away just a few months later. I also tried singing in his funeral... singing is hard in funerals. His daughter - my cousin Tanja Nordbye has made a video about Gárdin, and she also made the video for my song "Gárdin àhkku - Grandmother Inga.

And here is her film about Gárdin where grandmother spent most her life:



Read most memorable comment I ever got from my grandmother here: http://elinkaaven.blogspot.no/2010/08/my-grandma-is-funny.html
And what our family is famous for here:  http://elinkaaven.blogspot.no/2015/02/my-sami-name.html