 Marianne
(my ex-wife) inherited the cottage.
Her grandfather was called Ingvar Hvistendahl and has a somewhat interesting
heritage. Apparently he was secretly in the Norwegian resistance during
the second world war and maintained a wealthy situation as a cover. He married Isabel Fraser of the famous Scottish
Fraser clan. Isabel Hvistendahl died on Tuesday 8th July 1997.
Marianne informed me that there were a lot of Nazi sympathisers at the funeral.
Ingvar built a shipping company. It started with whaling.
At some point whaling became un-commercial and so he diversified to cargo. In its day it was
a significant shipping company. When I married
Marianne, however, they had no ships left. The shell of the company was
eventually sold to an Argentinean.
However, the Hvistendahl’s had a bit of dosh left. Ingvar and Isabel had
four children (Ingvar, Erik, Elisabeth & Harald). Coincidentally,
Elisabeth (known as Bet) married a Scottish man, one TTS Ingram, and went
to live in Edinburgh. Bet & Tom (TTS as he was known to his colleagues)
had one child; a daughter called Marianne (the one I married). Ingvar
(senior) had built a summer house on Foynland. It's a very nice traditional
wooden house with a grass roof (have you ever tried mowing the roof - not
funny - I can tell you). It was built on top of a hill
on the island overlooking the Oslo fjord. As a gift to his daughter
he built a smaller house, called Tussestua (see
MultiMap), down at the foot of the hill by the fjord. Access is rustic
and very difficult. You cannot get a car anywhere near the house.
Try getting the shopping down the mountain path on a rainy day.
Elisabeth Ingram died on Saturday 20 June 1987 and consequently left the house to Marianne. |