FrancoAntonia FulviaLiviana

On January 6, 1954, my husband Franco and I left our home in San Lorenzo de Arzene with our two little girls during a terrible snowstorm. Fulvia was two and a half and Liviana celebrated her five month birthday when we arrived in Canada. We travelled by train to Venice where we had to transfer to Genoa. We were so worried about missing our ship, as the rail connections were frozen because of the cold. However, the Vulcania was detained at Genoa because so many other passengers from various parts of Italy also had trouble travelling in the difficult weather.

As soon as we arrived in Genoa we set sail, making our way eventually to the Atlantic Ocean. I was terribly seasick, and for most of the trip ate only ice cream. Fulvia was also very seasick and had difficulty eating anything at all. My husband felt fine, he was actually one of the few people who appeared in the dining room during the first few days; he greatly enjoyed the abundance of food. My baby, Liviana, also did well. One of the stewards named Luigi kept an eye on her while she slept when I was finally able to join my husband in the dining room.

On January 20th we landed in Halifax and went through Immigration. Our final destination was Sudbury, Ontario where we were to live temporarily with my sister Mafalda and her husband Elio. We travelled by rail, but had to make an overnight stop in Montreal. Even though the train was unheated, everyone had to stay there the whole night.

In the morning, we were taken to the train station. However, since I had two babies I was taken to a building, along with another lady who also had small children. I don’t know which agency was responsible for this, but we were so appreciative because it was warm and there were toys and cribs where the children could sleep. Best of all, there were laundry facilities where a woman motioned to us to wash the diapers and the girls’ clothing and to place them on the radiators to dry. After all those days on the ship and a very small number of cloth diapers it was heaven. Neither of us had any money and we kept looking over our shoulders in case someone came to ask us to pay. Luckily, no one did!

My husband remained at the station with all the other immigrants. He did say, however, that a number of them were treated to coffee by an Italian gentleman who had immigrated to Montreal years before and made a practice of doing this for his fellow paesani.

Finally, we made it to Sudbury. It was a bit of a shock to us because the city was so bare, grey, and cold. The temperature was much colder than in Italy. We only stayed there for a couple of years, as there were no construction jobs in Sudbury during the cold winter. My husband did not reach the weight requirement for work in the mines, so his employment was sporadic.

During a Sunday visit with relatives, one of the men asked how work was. Franco said that once the house they were working on was done, there would be nothing else until spring. One of the men there made a call to Toronto to ask his son-in-law (who was building houses) if he had any work for a carpenter. My husband left for Toronto the very next morning. His sister Gemma had recently moved there, and he arranged to stay with her.

The following night Franco phoned me and told me to pack up our things and bring the girls down to Toronto, as he would have a steady job. We moved into a flat and several years later purchased our own home. We both worked very hard scrimping and saving until we were able to buy a larger home and paid cash—no more mortgages for us!

We never had any government assistance. This was the mid-50s and there were limited social services, no pension and no OHIP [Ontario Health Insurance]. Still, my family and so many others who immigrated went on to lead prosperous lives.