Ennio, Norina e Alberto Fornasiero

In speaking with my mother Norina, I asked her what she could remember about coming to Canada 59 years earlier. She stated that my father Ennio Bonifacio Fornasiero had sailed to Canada a year earlier and became a landed immigrant to Canada on July 28, 1951. She was a young 21 yr. old and I was a mere 9 months old when we left Italy for Canada. We had a suitcase and a trunk (to this date she still has the original trunk) when we boarded on the Italian passenger ship "Saturnia". We set sail from Genova, Italy to Halifax with a 15 day ocean sail crossing. The ship was completely full of people my mother remembers well. We were lucky to have a cabin that had a porthole window for viewing. Unfortunately we experienced rough waters for the entire trip across and my mother remembered all the people being seasick and throwing up on the decks. The waters were so turbulent that water would crash against the porthole window, blocking out the skylight for most of the time. At mealtimes, my mother and I, along with another couple were usually the only ones in the dining room, because people were so seasick. My mother added with a big smile, the food was so good! On July 19, 1952 we arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where we became landed immigrants to Canada. From there, it was a 2-day train ride to Toronto, Ont. We were greeted there by my father Ennio, my aunt and uncle, Vera & Guildo Fornasiero. From there we traveled to Fort Erie, Ontario where we made our new home.

Alberto Fornasiero