Cor Groenewegen

We both arrived by ship from The Netherlands in the same year.

Cor arrived with his brother Nico on the Waterman at Pier 21 on April 22, 1952. At the date of arrival he was 23 years old and had served his country for 2 years as a Dutch Marine. Most of his time in the Marines was served in Indonesia (Former Dutch East Indies). Having been in Indonesia, he wanted to see more of this world and decided to emigrate to Canada.

Two of his paternal uncles had emigrated to Canada with their families in 1948 and were living on Wolfe Island Ontario. They were both sponsored by them. Nico, being 20 years of age, was placed on the Reserve list for Military Service.

The voyage on board the Waterman from Rotterdam to Halifax took 7 days. On the first day of their journey they found 5 more single young men on board and had a good time hanging around together.

After landing at Pier 21 everyone went their own way. Nico and Cor left Pier 21 by train late in the evening for Kingston Ontario. In the fall of 1954 Nico returned to The Netherlands because he was very homesick. They were living in Walkerton Ontario at that time and he hitch-hiked all the way to Montreal, Quebec and boarded the Groote Beer to return to The Netherlands for good.

Mia arrived with her family on the Zuiderkruis at Pier 21 on January 30,1952. She was 17 years old and arrived with her parents, one brother and 3 sisters. They had left the port of Rotterdam on January 22, 1952.

After the necessary paper work at the emigration officer's, the family boarded the train to Elfros,Saskatchewan. The family was sponsored by a farmer in this town. The winter was hard and her family did not adjust well to the climate of the West. The following spring (1953) Mia's father decided to take the train to Ontario. The first village they landed in was Formosa, a village south of Walkerton.

In the mean time, Cor & Nico were living in Walkerton and attending church in Carlsruhe, which was served by a priest of Dutch decent. After mass one Sunday he mentioned that a Dutch family had arrived in Formosa. The following weekend Cor and Nico went to visit the Remkes family. The family soon moved to Carlsruhe and then to Walkerton. Mia started to work in Walkerton and Cor got to know her better.

The following year (1954) the Remkes family moved to Mount Brydges, Ontario, but Mia stayed in Walkerton to work. Not long after that, Mia wanted to move closer to her family and Cor decided to follow. September 1955 was the year that Cor & Mia were married. Cor and Mia became Canadian citizens on the 23rd day of June 1960.