This article was sent to me by a Beach resident, but with no date. I would have to guess it is from the early 1960's.
If anyone can narrow the date down or have comments to add, please email me or post below.
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Posted with permission from the Hamilton Spectator.
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STREET BEAT
526-3391
Paul Wilson
Liv won't let ocean keep her from friends
THE FRONT of the envelope says: "To A Newspaper In Hamilton, Ontario, Canada." It ended up at the Spec door, and then at my desk:
"In 1952 I lived with my parents and brother at 7 Fairview Avenue at Hamilton Beach. I went to Bell Cairn Memorial School and I had a splendid time. My name then was Liv Elsy Johannessen and my brother's name was Stale.
"We had many friends. I remember some names — Lorraine Stewart, Karen Ferguson, Betty Buta, Jean Thomsen, Sharon, Steven, Peter, Gary who lived next door to us.'
"We returned to Norway where we are still. I got married and have four grown-up children and one grandchild. If anybody of my friends want to write to me, I would be very glad — Mrs. Liv Elsy Helgesen, Olsvikasen 7, 5079 Olsvik, Bergen, Norway.
"P.S. I put in an old picture which was taken at a birthday party."
FOR MONTHS I've kept you abreast of the case of Pawel, Katarzyna and the twins. Today, it's time to write the final chapter. '
The young couple from Poland had run afoul of the immigration department. Their crime — delivering flyers without a work permit.
But they had to have money because Katarzyna had just learned she was pregnant. Last May, the twins were born.
Pawel had applied for landed immigrant status at the consulate in Buffalo. He was told all looked well, but the flyer incident changed that.
When Katarzyna was five-months pregnant, she met a young woman named Pam Summers on a bench in Victoria Park. Pam, a second-year child education student at Mohawk, learned the mother-to-be had not yet been to a doctor because none would take her without OHIP.
Pam couldn't believe that. But when she started making calls, she found her new Polish friend was right. Finally, they did find a doctor with a heart. However, Pam did not stop there.
She helped Katarzyna and Pawel with a good three-page, typed letter detailing the case. That document went to politicians, church leaders, the media. Then Pam started a petition and collected 1,174 names.
So the case ended up getting the attention of Immigration Minister Barbara McDougall. This past Monday, the couple got a call: from a Polish translator with the immigration department — Pawel was to come in right away and pick up his passport, seized the day of the flyer problem.
When he did that, he was told to arrive early Wednesday morning at a pickup point on Centennial Parkway. There an immigration van ferried him and others to Buffalo. They arrived at the consulate at 9 a.m. Pawel was out in 10 minutes, bearing a brown envelope with all the right papers.
By noon, he was back home and, in their basement apartment, Pawel and Katarzyna cried.
"Now we can start working and one day we can say Hamilton is our's," says Katarzyna. She's busy writing thank-yous to the people who helped.
And there will be a few wedding invitations too, with a ceremony in about two weeks. The maid of honor, of course, is Pam.
"I think before all this, I fell for the old myth that immigrants are just here to sap the system," she says.
"I do feel good. Someone said to me, 'Pam, you helped map out this family's future.' And I guess I did."
Picture- Liv is looking for friends from her Beach Strip party days in the '50s.
If anyone can narrow the date down or have comments to add, please email me or post below.
____________________________________________________
Posted with permission from the Hamilton Spectator.
____________________________________________________
STREET BEAT
526-3391
Paul Wilson
Liv won't let ocean keep her from friends
THE FRONT of the envelope says: "To A Newspaper In Hamilton, Ontario, Canada." It ended up at the Spec door, and then at my desk:
"In 1952 I lived with my parents and brother at 7 Fairview Avenue at Hamilton Beach. I went to Bell Cairn Memorial School and I had a splendid time. My name then was Liv Elsy Johannessen and my brother's name was Stale.
"We had many friends. I remember some names — Lorraine Stewart, Karen Ferguson, Betty Buta, Jean Thomsen, Sharon, Steven, Peter, Gary who lived next door to us.'
"We returned to Norway where we are still. I got married and have four grown-up children and one grandchild. If anybody of my friends want to write to me, I would be very glad — Mrs. Liv Elsy Helgesen, Olsvikasen 7, 5079 Olsvik, Bergen, Norway.
"P.S. I put in an old picture which was taken at a birthday party."
FOR MONTHS I've kept you abreast of the case of Pawel, Katarzyna and the twins. Today, it's time to write the final chapter. '
The young couple from Poland had run afoul of the immigration department. Their crime — delivering flyers without a work permit.
But they had to have money because Katarzyna had just learned she was pregnant. Last May, the twins were born.
Pawel had applied for landed immigrant status at the consulate in Buffalo. He was told all looked well, but the flyer incident changed that.
When Katarzyna was five-months pregnant, she met a young woman named Pam Summers on a bench in Victoria Park. Pam, a second-year child education student at Mohawk, learned the mother-to-be had not yet been to a doctor because none would take her without OHIP.
Pam couldn't believe that. But when she started making calls, she found her new Polish friend was right. Finally, they did find a doctor with a heart. However, Pam did not stop there.
She helped Katarzyna and Pawel with a good three-page, typed letter detailing the case. That document went to politicians, church leaders, the media. Then Pam started a petition and collected 1,174 names.
So the case ended up getting the attention of Immigration Minister Barbara McDougall. This past Monday, the couple got a call: from a Polish translator with the immigration department — Pawel was to come in right away and pick up his passport, seized the day of the flyer problem.
When he did that, he was told to arrive early Wednesday morning at a pickup point on Centennial Parkway. There an immigration van ferried him and others to Buffalo. They arrived at the consulate at 9 a.m. Pawel was out in 10 minutes, bearing a brown envelope with all the right papers.
By noon, he was back home and, in their basement apartment, Pawel and Katarzyna cried.
"Now we can start working and one day we can say Hamilton is our's," says Katarzyna. She's busy writing thank-yous to the people who helped.
And there will be a few wedding invitations too, with a ceremony in about two weeks. The maid of honor, of course, is Pam.
"I think before all this, I fell for the old myth that immigrants are just here to sap the system," she says.
"I do feel good. Someone said to me, 'Pam, you helped map out this family's future.' And I guess I did."
Picture- Liv is looking for friends from her Beach Strip party days in the '50s.