By Melanie Knapp
I care about my Italian background. Grandma came with her mother and father on a donkey to the boat. That boat brought them to Ellis Island in New York. From there they came to Toronto. They lived in a box car for awhile and made it a nice home. Grandma helped translate for her parents, English to Italian. Later grandma worked in a huge building across from Square 1 department store and mall, helping different people from other countries feel welcomed and that their homes were comfortable. Grandpa came from a different part of Italy. He lived in Sudbury with his parents and moved to Toronto to marry my grandma. He was ten years older than her.
I love my Italian background. But I also have the English artistic flare, the love of the Scottish hills, the hopes for Native American songs so beautiful and healing.
The speckled trout, the rainbow fish, the pink and blue pastel dolphins and the octagon shapely designs on the turtles.
The oak leaves, the pine needles, the maple leaves and the cedar branches.
We’re all different peoples yet we are like the trees. And poetically, metaphorically, imaginatively speaking we all need the waters of life.
As a child we had visitors needing, wanting, respecting us kids and who we are. Vietnamese boat people became like brothers for awhile. Nelly from the Artic became a distant friend. Helima from Malaysia was beautiful and cooked us a meal of great delicate sustenance. This is a great way for me to remember my own memories and experiences with diversity.
Our kind friends visited from other places and what this made was a bigger family for awhile. Others stayed too, ones that needed a roof over their heads and some healing time with nature and our family.
More recently, here in the Sound we have had a number of families and people come to live. Great festivities were celebrated. Great efforts with communication were shown. My own writing classes were lucky to include such teaching and group education. The groups of Syrian people brought festivities and experienced tutoring. The common line of thought is that diversity isn’t always easy but it has great rewards of joy and learning and greater compassionate understanding.
There are people that have come here before and this has been home for awhile. There are people with backgrounds from different places. There are peoples who have been here for hundreds and hundreds of years.
We can welcome and meet one another more in shyness, in greetings and in the service of good. We are all important people. Some people could put their efforts and joyfulness into being well with one another. Be well.
Grandma has passed to be with my grandpa this week. She was 100 years and six months. Both her and Christopher Robin turned 100 this year. She received a letter of acknowledgement from the Queen of England. Please say a prayer for her at the start of the different seasons of life. And think of her kindly and respectfully. I had a dream come true of spending time with her and we had over 500 fun-filled and nurturing visits in her older age. She is close to God and her loved ones now. Her body will rest in Toronto where she longed to return, to be with my Grandpa. Your thoughts of kindness for me and my family in our sorrows, celebrations and memories are appreciated too. May the diversity of life be good to us all.
