An Immigration Story by M.L.

Whenever my grandfather comes over, he sits with me at night and always tells me stories about how hard his life was on the farm in Croatia.

“Life was definitely NOT easy,” he would exclaim, “two bedrooms, one for my parents and one for all SIX kids. We would often argue over which four would sleep on the bed and who would sleep on the floor. As the oldest I was always in charge of the other kids and let me tell you what we had to do in the day.”

I see a small frown growing on his face as he continues, “our mother would wake up at four in the morning to milk the cows, but by that time my father had already left to work at the labour mill, but on some lucky days he would go to work around lunchtime and spend all morning teaching us how to clean the cow, pig, sheep and chicken stables, how to chop firewood and how to feed all the animals. On regular days us kids would do all of our chores and would often not be done until dinner, that is if we had enough food to feed the whole family.”

My grandfather’s face lifted into a small but joyful grin as he tells me more about his bittersweet memories, “the first day of school, I was ten years old, my parents had finally gotten enough money to send us all to school. About ten years later I started my job alongside my brother as a car mechanic. I admit that it wasn’t the best job but we only needed enough money to feed the family because our dad had retired and now both parents worked at home around the farm. About seven years later I had earned enough money and wanted to immigrate to Canada. My parents thought that it was the right decision but my siblings disagreed so they stayed in Croatia to help out on the farm.”

My grandfather took a deep sigh and then continued, “the first few years I lived with my uncle then I met………Stanka the love of my life! We were at Croatian church when my uncle introduced me to Stanka, his close friend from Croatia’s daughter, who had recently immigrated to Canada. We instantly fell in love and three years later we wed and she gave birth to a child and named her Carol. Two years later came the second girl, Renata.”

My grandfather looks at me and smiles, “and throughout my whole life I regret nothing.” He kisses my head and says good night I close my eyes and realize how lucky I am to live in such a peaceful place.