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Wow. I've just discovered that my sister and I appeared in a photo in the Toronto Star 45 years ago, as refugees from Vietnam. I didn't even know of the photo's existence and didn't remember that there had been a stopover in GTA.
https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDMDC-TSPA_0019059F&R=DC-TSPA_0019059F&searchPageType=vrl
https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDMDC-TSPA_0019059F&R=DC-TSPA_0019059F&searchPageType=vrl
Wherever you are now, Doug Griffin, tip of the hat for recording an extraordinary moment in my childhood.
I've told the story before but since it's December I'll repeat it for those who don't know: we came to Canada because it was too cold in California.
We were in tents in a compound for refugees at Camp Pendleton, a Marines base near San Diego. It was very cold and my parents took the first resettlement opportunity, which turned out to be immigration officers from Canada. And that's how we started a new life in Montreal.
Always a slow journalist, it now occurs to me that this is a photo taken by a Toronto Star but I have no evidence it was ever published.
Thanks to @fkelly25, confirmation that indeed, I managed to get in the Star years before my name appeared in the Globe.
Everything that I had was in that Air Vietnam bag. Our 1st days in Montreal, we were lodged in a small hotel near Place Bonaventure and given food and 2nd hand clothes. My parents found an apartment on Édouard Montpetit. 1 bedroom for them and my sister. I slept on the couch.
My parents were busy looking for work and getting recertified, so I spent my first months in Canada on my own. Sometimes helping babysit my sister, otherwise wandering the streets on my own, trying to understand headlines in the newspaper boxes, waiting for school to start.
Thanks to another generous Star person, @kelseyleewilson, another photo, my mother feeding my sister.
https://twitter.com/kelseyleewilson/status/1338909540721561600
She is a pharmacist by training. Her first job in Canada: parking lot attendant. Eventually owned her own pharmacy in Montreal before retiring.
https://twitter.com/kelseyleewilson/status/1338909540721561600
She is a pharmacist by training. Her first job in Canada: parking lot attendant. Eventually owned her own pharmacy in Montreal before retiring.
Should have posted this earlier but it's been a bit of a whirlwind -- I'm very grateful that @TorontoStar shared its ample photo archive with @torontolibrary, which made it searchable online. @torontolibrary is a great reference online resource, not just for taking out books.
