ABSTRACT
After her mother's death, when Bíbí was about 30 years old, she refused to move to the capital of Iceland and be placed in an institution for people with intellectual disabilities. Instead, she moved to the nearby town – Blönduós – where she was placed in a retirement home, Hælið. She remained there for the next 17 years; these dramatic changes in Bíbí's life are discussed. She did not belong, of course, among the elderly residents, and she was not happy there. But the characteristic feature of Bíbí's life is her resourcefulness, and what she was able to achieve within her circumstances, and that is the subject of this chapter.
