View From a Prairie Home

by Hege Hernfindahl, Columnist

Why Ireland, you might say. Why would you want to celebrate your 50th wedding anniversary there? Why not here, in Minnesota, where your family lives and you have lived for most of your married life? Or Norway, the country of your wedding and early married bliss?

The answer is complicated, but I will try to summarize. The idea came from two friends who had decided to take their whole family to Scotland to celebrate their 50th there. That inspired me. But I didn’t want to imitate them, so I decided on Ireland. Easy travel for my brother and kind of neutral territory for our family; not associated with heartbreaking memories of our two beloved departed souls. Grant concurred and set about planning.

He immediately found a big house with sleeping space for thirteen at Carrowcally, on the west coast of Ireland, right next to the ocean. As the guest list expanded, we also rented a smaller house nearby, equipped each family unit with money for travel and set about deciding what to do once the festivities were over.

It turned out to be one of the best decisions ever! Ireland with its misty mornings of magic; gently sloping hills of vivid green, with meadows bordered by stone walls made by craftsmen hundreds of years ago.. Ireland with its fresh ocean breezes and air so clear and clean breathing it was pure pleasure and made your heart sing. Ireland with its history of struggles and tragedies but also triumph over adversity. Ireland with its narrow, meandering one-lane roads that made driving challenging but interesting. And above all, Ireland with its people, chatty and unpresumptuous, smiling and good-spirited. I think we all fell in love with both the country and its people.

Grant reminded me not to over-generalize. We didn’t go to any big city with its bustling throng of busy people. We just went to western Ireland with its miles and miles of countryside, stone cottages and sheep peacefully grazing among the stone walls. Of course people were friendly, he said, because all country people are friendly. Now look who is over-generalizing!

Driving was challenging with country roads one lane only so people had to back up when meeting another car. These roads had no shoulders and bordered the stone walls. Luckily Grant is a good driver. We drove on the left side of the road, gearing with the left hand and all N (county) roads had roundabouts every mile or so. Our GPS sometimes took us the shortest distance which often was a road so narrow, the pedestrians we met had to jump up on the stone wall. But when we took a wrong turn or occasionally forgot to keep to the left side of the road, the other drivers smiled and waved. Maybe it was that they drank tea instead of coffee or that the beauty of the landscape was mirrored in their souls, but we saw no incidents of road rage.

The house by the sea, where we stayed for four days and where we celebrated our anniversary complete with an awesome caterer who cooked gourmet food for us and smiled and chatted and became part of our family and an entire day of sunshine and laughter and love, was situated on a point. The view was the wide and wild Atlantic on one side and a bay on the other side with a view of Croagh Patrick (mount Patrick), Ireland’s holy mountain. The next day, two of our grandsons, Anders and Torsten, took us with to climb the mountain, which is no easy task in the fog and rain. But we all did it! And even the boys had shaky legs afterwards.

We are home now, jet-lagged and exhausted with yet many stories of an amazing trip to the beautiful green isle of Eire.