Lillias Bjornson

Lillias Bjornson (nee Heylar) (born 1937) is a Vancouver resident.

She was from 2017 to 2018 the treasurer of the Thomas Merton Society of Canada. [1]

In 2021 she stepped down as Trustee and Treasurer of St. Andrew's Church in Vancouver [2].

Early life

She is the daughter of Flora Helyar and Charles Helyar and grandaughter of Alex Currie.

She also had a stepmother Ann Vidal who was married to her father from when she was 13 years old. From 1950 to 1993 when her father died.

Presumably she was quite close to Ann and the products of that marriage, which included multiple further children.

Marriage and family

She married Harrill Bjornson (1933 - 2022) on 24 November 1958. Her husband was a former reporter and editor at the Vancouver Sun. He was born in Iceland:

The aphorism is: “Every man likes the smell of his own farts.” I first heard it long ago from Harrill Bjornson, former reporter and editor at The Sun. Harrill’s family hails from Iceland, and he maintained, I think with some pride, that the aphorism was an old Icelandic saying.

— Pete McMartin, 24 June 2013, Vancouver Sun [3]

It is possible somehow this Icelandic connection came from Charles Helyar's second wife Ann Vidal who seems to have had a very extensive family including Icelandic people. Maybe that is where she met him.

They had four children:

• Lisa
• Sean
• Kitt
• Lee

Harrill remarried in the 1960s or 1970s and died in 2022 [4]

Sources

Ron Currie

Marilyn Hermiston