Sad News

I read in the paper this morning that one of the Icelandic women I got to know in California, Hekla Sigmundsdóttir, passed away last week.  I knew that she had been sick for a long time, but little did I know that she’d been fighting cancer for 20 years.  She was a private person, and did not ever discuss her illness with us.

She moved back to Iceland some years before we did, after a successful stint as a postdoc fellow at the Stanford University School of Medicine.  Sadly, she never had the health to continue on in our little ex-Californian’s sewing club, so I lost contact with her, but her’s was a unique voice and she will be missed.

She was an excellent scientist, and in 2008 landed one of the biggest individual grants ever for an Icelander.  I’m sure her departure leaves a large gap at the research lab she worked in at the Landspítali University Hospital.

(And, morbidly, one must wonder just how long those Facebook and LinkedIn links will remain active… 🙁 )

Here are pictures of Hekla I found on our website, from sewing clubs (saumó) and BBQs of years past:

Sólveigar-saumó apríl 2005, Lottu-saumó júlí 2005, Hrefnu-saumó ágúst 2005, Ásdísar-saumó sept 2005, Íslendinga-BBQ feb 2006, Íslendinga-BBQ sept 2006,  Hrefnu-saumó júní 2007.

We send our deepest condolences to all her family and friends.