The Red Coat

The Red Coat

This true story takes place many years ago, on a small island outside the coast of Norway. A young woman called Guri lived there, together with her husband Jakob. Together they ran a little farm with a few sheep and a cow. Jakob also worked as a fisherman, to increase their income a little.

During World War II, Guri and Jakob had their first three children, three boys. Little did the children know that they lived in an occupied country - with the nearest town a two-hour boat trip away they didn’t see a single German soldier in the island for the whole duration of the war. Life went on as normal, the boys played, the parents worked - and the war was just something on the radio. When it ended, life on the farm didn’t change very much.

Guri loved her three little boys very much, but she couldn’t help thinking a little girl would have been nice. As her third son was born, the midwife could see a hint of disappointment in the young mother’s face. “Next year - you’ll have a daughter,” she whispered into her ear as she placed little Thomas in her arms.

And, exactly one year later, on Thomas’ first birthday, Eliza was born. Finally Guri had a little girl to care for, groom and make dresses for. While the boys were running around on the farm, chasing each other, climbing trees, and playing in the dirt, Eliza stayed close to her mother, following her around, helping her look after the animals and taking care of the work in the house.

One day when Jakob had to go into town, Guri left her oldest son in charge of the other three children, and came with her husband, so she could buy a few things for the family. She wanted to buy fabrics so she could sew new shirts for the children. But in one of the shops she found a small, red coat. It was a beautiful piece of clothing, fit for a little princess. Guri insisted they bought it for Eliza. Jakob wasn’t eager to spend that amount of money on one child - why would she need a coat like that, when she could use her brothers’ old jackets? But Guri wouldn’t give in, and a little later they were on their way back home, with a red little coat in the boat with them.

Eliza loved her new coat, and she wore it as often as she was allowed to, which meant every Sunday when they went to church, and also whenever her mother took her with her to the local shop by the docks on the island. Everyone who saw her admired the coat, it was unusual for a farmer’s daughter to wear something so nice.

When Eliza was four, Guri had another child, a little boy this time. He was born at home, like the rest of them, but it was soon made clear that he’d have to go into hospital in town, as he was very small and weak, and needed extra care if he was going to make it. Guri had to leave her four oldest children in the care of their father as she went to stay with her baby son at the hospital. With a two hour journey there was no talk of her going back until the baby was ready to come home for good.

For three weeks Guri stayed at the hospital, glad to see that little Fred was growing stronger every day, but still she missed her other children terribly. One night as she slept on a mattress on the floor next to baby Fred’s crib she had a dream. She was in the local shop on the island, carrying Fred in her arms and watching Eliza run around, in between the shelves. Suddenly, the little girl was out of sight. Guri felt a sense of panic, and she searched everywhere in the shop to find her, but she couldn’t see her anywhere. She ran outside, and saw three men standing at the dock, staring into the water. Putting Fred over her shoulder, she ran over to them to see what they were looking at. It felt like something inside her turned to ice when she saw what was floating on the surface of the water - a red coat.
“Why didn’t you stop her?!” she screamed at the men, waking up the baby in her arms and causing him to scream as well. “Why didn’t one of you grab her? My little girl! Somebody, do something!” she cried hysterically.

It was a nurse that woke her up. She was still screaming from the top of her lungs, and she was covered in sweat, when they shook her awake and told her to calm down, that it was just a dream, and that she was waking up all the other patients.

This story has a happy ending. Eliza didn’t drown, in fact she became an extremely strong swimmer and at the age of nine saved another small child from drowning - for which she received a medal from the Norwegian government. She grew up to be a fine young woman, got married to a nice man, had four children, and is now a grandmother of ten.
Fred got out of hospital, he became a healthy boy, and he also grew up to get married and become a father and grandfather.

As for Guri - she is also still alive, at 93 now, but healthy as a horse. After Fred, she had to more children, two girls. The youngest of those two, Jane, became my mother…