An Icelandic family whose car broke down on their way to a family reunion in Bolungarvík, a fishing village in the West Fjords, last weekend were able to continue their journey thanks to good samaritans.
“My family and I were on our way to a family reunion in Bolungarvík. We’d packed our bags and lunches, gotten the kids in the car,” Agnes Guðjónsdóttir wrote on Facebook, as reported by pressan.is. On the way from Reykjavík, they made a stopover to go swimming in Borgarnes, before continuing their journey.
When the family was driving up Brattabrekka (‘Steep Slope’) just outside of Borgarnes, the car suddenly broke down. They were able to slide the car down the mountain and to a parking lot, but unable to get it running again.
Agnes called TM insurance company to see if they had any emergency services, but they did not. However, the TM agent she spoke with recommended that she call someone he knew in Borgarnes, a man called Völundur, who tows cars for the insurance company.
Völundur responded straight away and said he would come pick up the car and bring the family to Borgarnes. When Agnes told him there was five of them, he told her it was no problem at all, his wife would come with him on her own car.
Völundur and his wife brought the car and the family to a mechanic in Borgarnes who looked at the car, but told them it would take him some time to repair it.
“Völundur’s wife was devastated about this and offered to drive us home to Reykjavík. I said that was too much, we could probably figure something out for ourselves, but thanked her for the offer,” said Agnes.
Völundur’s wife walked over to him and quietly spoke with him for several minutes. Then she came up to Agnes and told her: “You’ll just take our car and go to the family reunion. You can’t pack lunches and plan the entire trip and then not go.”
Stunned, Agnes responded: “Thank you but I can’t possibly accept that offer. I don’t even know your name.”
Then the woman told her: “My name is Signý and I won’t have it any other way.”
With tears in her eyes Agnes asked Signý how much she should pay for the use of her car. “Do you think I am doing this to get paid?” Signý responded. “That’s out of the question. You have three small children and are in trouble, and when that sort of thing happens you do what you can to help.”
Agnes and her family then drove to the family reunion on Völundur and Signý’s jeep. After the weekend the couple insisted on following the family to Reykjavík on another car and bring their jeep home themselves.
“Signý and Völundur from Borgarnes are beautiful everyday heroes who rescued us even though they didn’t know us at all. Everyone should follow the example they’ve set,” Agnes concludes.
