Astrid Skomedal, a war nurse who fled Norway in 1940 in a fishing boat with 22 family members, died yesterday at the Perley and Rideau Veterans' Health Centre. She was 96.
Mrs. Skomedal survived a dangerous North Atlantic crossing to Canada, served in Europe during the Second World War as a nurse in the Royal Norwegian Naval Airforce, and outlived nine siblings.
The cause of death was likely old age, said her only child, Tordis Jodoin, of Orléans.
"She was a five-foot-two dynamo," said Mrs. Jodoin. "She was a tough little cookie."
Born Astrid Nøvik on Nov. 14, 1911 in Titran, Norway, she was in nursing school in Trondheim when Germany invaded Norway on April 9, 1940.
The Nøvik family, fishermen and farmers, were involved in the resistance, transporting British and U.S. intelligence officers, and medical supplies for Finnish and Russian troops.
On June 9, 1940, Mrs. Skomedal's oldest brother was warned they had been found out. Leaving behind their half-eaten meals on tables, he gathered the family and they ran for the Kaare II, a 70-foot fishing boat.
The group included her father, siblings and their spouses, nieces and nephews. They ranged in age from six months to 70 years. "They would have been shot and the family wiped out," says Mrs. Jodoin.
In the meantime, Mrs. Skomedal was contacted by a member of the resistance and told to go to the bus station where she was to follow, but not acknowledge, an acquaintance. Thus she was guided onto a bus headed for the coast, where she was the last to board the family boat.
Five days later, on reaching the Faroe Islands, halfway between Iceland and Norway, they were given water and food, but not permitted to stay. They hoped to carry on to England, but did not receive authorization from British authorities. "With that avenue of escape closed, they made a run for Canada," says Mrs. Jodoin.
To avoid Nazi boats and planes, they followed a fishing route to Greenland, making it look as though they were fishermen. Along the way, they encountered German gunfire, storms and icebergs.
Seasickness plagued two sailors; the family mixed-breed dog Caesar and 29-year-old Mrs. Skomedal. Both were so ill they had to be dragged in and out of the cabin on a piece of sail. w
Years later, when she was 91 and living at the Perley, Mrs. Skomedal kept a picture of the boat on her wall. Visited by a Citizen writer, she pointed to it and mimicked sickness. "We made it," she said. "Nobody died. It's not a story. It's nothing."
On July 13, they landed at St. John's, N.L., later carrying on to Sydney, N.S.
Four months later, in November 1940, Mrs. Skomedal made her way to Toronto, where she worked as a nurse at the hospital at Little Norway, a training camp on the downtown harbour.
Here, hundreds of Norwegians trained as pilots and aircrew before returning to the battlefields of Europe.
She joined the Norwegian military and in April 1941 the first trained squadron to leave Little Norway, the 330th Norwegian Squadron, took her along as their nurse.
Mrs. Skomedal was later transferred to Britain, where she shuttled between hospitals in London and Edinburgh. She recalled coming out of a movie theatre in London to discover that an entire block of buildings had been wiped out. She spent most of the war years treating the wounded and dying.
Six months after the end of the war, she was fortunate to catch a ride back to Canada. One of her patients, recovering from appendicitis, offered her his bunk on a ship going to British Columbia, where her family had settled.
In B.C., she met and married logger and fellow Norwegian Gunstein Skomedal, who had served with the Royal Canadian Engineers, took part in D-Day and been wounded twice.
"As two war veterans, they understood each other, the death and the misery they had seen," says Mrs. Jodoin.
They lived in Vancouver. Mrs. Skomedal was an avid gardener, growing roses, peonies, blueberries, strawberries, cherries, pears and peaches. She loved to read history books and for a time worked as a finishing seamstress in a fine tailor shop.
War left its mark. "My parents were very private and hesitated to socialize," recalls Mrs. Jodoin. "My mother remained extremely quiet and reserved."
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