OUR STORY

When Ernest and I tell people that we are both Polish and have known each other since we were 10, one of the first questions people as was if it was an arranged marriage? Alas, the answer is no. It was just pure luck and the commonality of both having lived through the same difficult experience.

We were both born in Poland in 1977 and lived there with our families. I lived in Gdansk in the north and Ernest lived in Krakow in the south. Then, due to the crackdown on the Solidarity movement by the ruling Communist regime, our families choose to flee Poland and provide their children with better life.

Aleksandra:

When martial law broke out in 1981, I was on a merchant cargo ship with my family. My dad was a marine engineer and once a year the crew was allowed to bring their families on a trip. Though it was difficult to all obtain passports for all of us to travel at the same time, somehow it was managed and we set sail to deliver iron ore to Brazil.

In December, at our last port before heading home to Poland, the ship stopped in the Canary Islands for final re-supplying and refuelling; that is when news of the civic upheaval reached us. My parents were faced with the difficult decision of what to do next. The news reaching us was frightening, fighting in the streets, people imprisoned without cause, ceasing of assets and property. Should our family risk returning home or leave everything behind, family, friends, our home, all our possessions and jump ship being accepted by Spain as political refugees. As the clock ticked towards the impending departure of our ship, my parents struggled with their decision. At dawn only hours before the ship left port my parents, along with me, age 4, my brother, age 2 and a suit case of clothes descended the gangplank with a small group of others to face an unknown future, but one that they knew would hold a potential that our old life never could.

We lived in Spain as refugees for almost two years applying to various countries for asylum. We were accepted Canada in part because we were sponsored by the Polish Community in Victoria. In the third week of May we landed at Victoria International Airport and arrived just in time for Victoria Day.

Four years later I met Ernest on his first day in Canada, which happened to be Canada Day.

Being immigrants in a new land meant a lot of hard work and sacrifice, lucky for us kids, my parents’ somehow managed it without us realizing how hard it really was, especially in the beginning. However, we did learn a few valuable lessons from those early days. Never be afraid of hard work, we both had chores from the time we were little, paper routes when we were old enough, and were always employed from the time we turned 15. Education was a must. In my family, University was the only option and as long as we were studying we would always have help from my parents. Which leads to: your family will always be there to support you. Only by sticking together could we have accomplished so much since we left Poland. And finally, if you really stick to your gut and put in the necessary work, you can accomplish any goal. I hope that, though my children have everything that my parents could only dream of giving my brother and me at their age, I can instil in them all those invaluable lessons that I learnt in my journey to this better life.