Cornelia Maria van Wyk Heystee

Born in Kortenhoef on December 12, 1929 to Cornelia Maria van Wijk-Goes and Johanes Gerardes van Wijk, and the youngest of seven children. On October 29, 1952 and at age 23 departed from The Netherlands at Rotterdam. Arrived on November 6, 1952 at Pier 21 in Halifax after a crossing aboard the Rijndam. Immediately boarded a train to join her husband-to-be in Ottawa where they were married within one month of arrival in Canada.

Following marriage, Cornelia and William lived in Ottawa for a short while, then over a period of about 20 years in Edwards, Ramseyville and Carlsbad Springs (Ottawa area). Currently reside near Vernon, Ontario. Mother to 3 children, Richard (Toronto), Mary (Ottawa) and William (Cambridge) and grandmother to Mark, Chelsey, Bryan, Steven and Ian.

Recollections of my journey

I left The Netherlands on the afternoon of October 29, 1952 to join my fiancé, William Henry Heystee, in Canada. My husband-to-be was able to immigrate to Canada because he was sponsored by a Canadian citizen to work on a farm near Barry's Bay. After he had worked there for about one year and had fulfilled all obligations associated with the sponsorship, he decided to move to Ottawa to find work and a place to live. Once settled, he wrote and asked that I join him in Canada. He was my sponsor and one of the conditions of this sponsorship was that we marry within 30 days of my arrival in Canada.

As a young woman I rarely traveled far from home with my biggest trips being to nearby cities like Amsterdam and Volendam. So when I decided to move to Canada to join my fiancé I was embarking on an adventure and a trip of a lifetime.

I have very vivid memories of the trip from my house in Kortenhoef to the Holland-America's Wilhelminakade Quay in Rotterdam. My two sisters, four brothers and I traveled to Rotterdam in the back of a truck owned by my brother-in-law. However my parents said their good-byes at the house because they could not bear the thought of seeing their youngest child depart on a ship to a far-off land called Canada. I suspect that they were very sad because they thought they would not see their daughter again for a very long time (unfortunately my mother was right in that she died in 1959, 5 years before I was able to return for a visit in the summer of 1964). I had very mixed feelings when I left the port of Rotterdam. On one hand I was very sad about leaving my very close-knit family and moving to a new country. On the other hand I was looking forward to joining my fiancé and starting a new life together in Canada. To add to this I had, and still have, a fear of water and I was not looking forward to spending a week on the North Atlantic.

I made the crossing on the S.S. Rijndam, which was a relatively new ship brought into service in the previous year. The cost of ship fare was $167.50. I was fortunate not to be seasick during the crossing, possibly because my physician gave me some pills to prevent seasickness before I left and which I took once per day during the crossing. I shared Cabin 236 with four other women and we spent a lot of time together during our journey. I met a few other men and women, and we passed the time by playing cards and sharing stories about family and friends that we had left behind. We also passed the time by reading on deck. This was not a modern-day cruise ship with lots of organized activities - we had to make our own entertainment during the journey. As I recall the food on the ship was quite good and it helped to make the crossing more enjoyable.

Our ship arrived at Pier 21 in Halifax. After disembarking we had to enter a large hall in order to have our immigration papers processed. I sat on a hard bench for about 2 hours while waiting my turn to meet with an immigration officer. Once cleared I had a couple of hours to spare before my train departed for Ottawa. We walked around in the vicinity of Pier 21 looking in various shops. I remember seeing oranges and being amazed at their low price- we did not have many oranges back home, especially during the war years, and the oranges that we did have were very expensive.

The journey to Ottawa took two long days and nights, and cost $32.00. It seemed very long compared to the train trips that I had taken back home. On this journey I came to realize that Canada was a much larger country than The Netherlands. The hard wooden benches did not make the trip seem any shorter either. My traveling companions from the ship got off the train at Montreal and I was left to travel on my own to Ottawa. I was a little scared about this last leg of my journey and was concerned about not reaching Ottawa and meeting up with my fiancé. Fortunately the conductor on the train was very kind and reassuring; he made sure that I knew when the train arrived at Union Station in Ottawa. At the train station my fiancé and his sister (she had arrived in Canada a few months earlier) were there to greet me and to welcome me to Canada.

Upon arrival in Ottawa I stayed with the Sisters of Service for a few days. They were the same organization that had assisted my fiancé when he arrived in Ottawa almost a year earlier. They eventually found a job for me as a maid for a family on Prince of Wales Drive. I stayed with them until we were married on December 6, 1952, at which time my husband and I moved into a tiny two-bedroom apartment. It was very basic in that we had to cook on a hot plate, and the toilet and washroom facilities were outdoors. We eventually moved into more "luxurious" accommodations on Rochester Street. We have lived and worked in the Ottawa area every since. We are the proud parents and grandparents of three children and five grandchildren.