Ingeborg Tynning Brekke

Ingeborg was born at Tynning on 4 June 1908. She worked as a cook in several places before returning to Brekke in 1939. There she took charge of the post and the telephone — services that made her home an important point of contact in the village. She married Einar Kristoffer Endreson Brekke (1902–1979). They had the children Einar Sigurd, Endre Sverre, Bjørn and Ingunn Birgit.

At around sixty Ingeborg began the project that made her known far beyond Brekke. She saw the need for a place to stay and engaged the architect Bjørn Simonnæs. The Brekkestranda fjord guesthouse opened in 1970. The building was given turf roofs, natural stone, wane-edged boards and a form in which almost no angle was square. Local people took part in the concrete work as volunteers, while Ingeborg carried much of the responsibility for planning, site management and the practical work.

She was also a hostess with a distinct personality. The sources tell that she sang and told stories for her guests and created a meeting place, not merely a place to sleep. Her son Bjørn joined the business in 1976 and carried the hotel on.

In 1974 NRK made the twenty-minute radio programme «Uvanlig hus og uvanlig vertinne. Møte med Ingeborg Brekke på Brekkestranda Fjordpensjonat» — an unusual house and an unusual hostess. It was recorded on 16 July and broadcast on 11 August, presented by Åsulv Edland.

Ingeborg's public engagement was tied above all to the position of women in the church. In a long interview in Nordhordland on 16 July 1983 she said that she wanted to gather a women's movement of her own and work for equality and for women priests. The paper quoted her characteristic remark that Paul «surely knew nothing about women». Behind the pointed headline lay a matter of principle: Christian women should listen to Christ and have the same rights as men.

For this long work Ingeborg received the Sogn og Fjordane county equality prize for 1989. She died on 17 September 1999. Her legacy is found both in the distinctive hotel by the fjord and in the voice she used to move boundaries.

Ingeborg died on Friday 17 September 1999, 91 years old. Her death was reported in Firda, Ytre Sogn, Bergensavisen on 29.9.1999, Dagen on 1.10.1999, Strilen and Nordhordland.