Living on a volcano

Today it's been 52 years since the volcanic eruption started on Heimaey, one of the Westman Islands archipelago where 5.303 people lived at the time.
I was born and raised on Heimaey and lived there until I left home as a young adult. 
In 1973 five newspapers were published in Iceland and on the same day there was a front page story about the eruption in Vísir, while the other newspapers had front page stories the next day.
Strange to think that I was just about two years old and don't remember much from the day.  I remember arriving on the main land by a fishing boat with my mother (my father was in Germany and only heard the news a day or two later) and seeing such a lot of people and cars and buses at the harbour. 
My parents had recently bought a house and moved in just before Christmas 1972 - only a few weeks before the volcano erupted - and we were lucky it didn't get ruined or covered under heavy layers of ash. We returned home in autumn 1973, only a short time after it was declared safe on July 5th. 
But the eruption still left a mark on my entire upbringing and to this day I don't understand how people can live there on an active and "hot" volcano.  But maybe the same can be said about all of Iceland?
The Vestman Islands - Vestmannaeyjar - will always be to me the most beautiful place in the world... at least on a nice summer's day.

The photo was taken by Valdís Óskarsdóttir

Another photo I have in my journal related to the eruption.

The photos in extra:
*The erupting volcano, photo by Emory Kristof for National Geographic (known particularly for his iconic photos of the discovery of the Titanic). 
*photos showing our home and garden covered in ash and my father cleaning up. It was a lot of work and everyone helped each other to make the village neat and tidy again. 
*A view from Heimaey before & after.
*a newspaper clip with a photo of me, my grandmother Guðbjörg and my cousin Drífa, all busy cleaning up the ash in Herjólfsdalur after the eruption.