Larry Hnetka Goes HMmmm

Grab the Scavenger Hunt code. Photo Theme: ANTIQUE. Join the blogroll. Visit participants. Previous Next Close (Left to right) Grandfather Mike Hnetka, Great-Grandfather Harry (Hrehori) Hnetka, Grandmother Josephine Hnetka, Great-Grandmother Anna Hnetka, Great-Uncle George Hnetka. c.1908 Click on the photo to view a larger version and to read caption.

This Saturday’s theme is Antique. Didn’t have much in the way of what I would call “antique”. This photo though was taken around 1908 so I’d consider it to be as antique-ish as anything might be.

It’s a photo of my Great-Grandparents Harry and Anna Hnetka (seated) and of my Grandfather Mike Hnetka (left), Grandmother Josephine Hnetka and my grandfather’s brother George Hnetka (right). The third Hnetka son, John, took the picture and that’s why he’s not in it.

I’ve just recently learned more detail about my great-grandparent’s arrrival in Canada at the turn of the century. My grandfather left his home town in Zamosta, Bukovina about eight miles from the town of Chernivtsi, Ukraine in the spring of 1900. Chernivtsi celebrates its 600th anniversary in October 2008.

My great-grandfather came to Canada as new immigrants were able to purchase 160 acres of land for ten dollars. These parcels of land were located in the middle of the prairies with little or no support services in place to help the settlers.

My great-grandmother followed in 1903 and immigrated to Canada with their sons Mike (grandfather age 14), and George (age 9). The story of her journey is one of great strength against huge obstacles. She literally built wooden trunks to carry the few possessions they had. She and her sons had never been outside their small village. Yet she travelled by train to Hamburg, Germany. The train cars only had benches and there were too many people and so many stood or sat on their luggage the entire journey.

In Hamburg, the largest city my great-grandmother had ever been in, the naive peasants were taken advantage of. After lengthy delays, often used as an excuse to scam these travellers, my great-grandmother finally boarded an overcrowded ship for the journey to Canada. She was left with only five dollars when the ship departed.

The ocean journey was horrendous. The food was meagre and water was rationed to three drinks a day. Some of the passengers perished. I’m told she actually kissed the ground when she arrived in Halifax. Then came a long and intrusive immigration screening process.

Finally, she boarded another train and travelled for five days to the end of the rail line in Winnipeg, Manitoba. My great-grandfather met her at the station with a horse-drawn wagon he had borrowed. They travelled for another five days to reach the 160 acres he had claimed as their homestead near Yorkton, Saskatchewan.

Perhaps the saddest part of my great-grandmother’s story is that her hand-made trunks never did arrive. She always suspected they never were loaded onto the ship as promised.

It’s humbling to think that only three generations ago, my great-grandparents endured such hardship the likes of which we will probably never know. To leave your small village, travel half-way around the world in vehicles you had never even seen before, and arrive in a hostile and isolated land with little or no types of support, is unfathomable to me.

I live in what they would consider unimagined luxury. I am here because of the legacy they were willing to forge for their children, their grandchildren, and for me, their great-grandchildren. I will be forever indebted and grateful to them for the sacrifices they were willing to endure to ensure the future of those of us who follow. I can only say thank you to them.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 17th, 2007 at 11:11:39 PM and is filed under JOURNAL. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.