In the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, the ship was roaring loudly. It was December 1953. Inga's big move had just begun!
Inga was born on April 19, 1929 in Copenhagen, Denmark. She had lived there all her life. She loved living in Denmark but one day her husband Erik decided to move.
In 1953, 14 years after the Second World War, Inga's husband Erik wanted to move to Canada. He wanted a change because he wanted to emigrate and just took off. She thought that she would never see her mom and dad again. Inga was worried because at the time she had a two-year-old son so she wanted to have a home to live in before she moved to Canada. She also wanted to stay in Denmark until Inga and Erik had a place to stay.
It took Erik nine months to get enough money to find a place for them to live in Canada before Inga arrived. Inga moved to Canada with her son Robert. He was two years old. Inga was 25 years old when she moved to Canada. Her husband Erik was 30 years old.
Inga could only bring a writing desk and a chest that had china dishes in it. She could not bring the rest of her furniture but she wanted to bring her bed. It took Inga and Robert (her two-year-old son) eight days to get from Denmark to Canada by ship. They had to take a ship because when she came to Canada it was too expensive to take a plane. The ship had 300 or 400 passengers on the boat she went on. The trip on the Stockholm still cost $1,500. Luckily her son was free. The ship was expensive because it was a first-class ship. Also, it was one of the biggest ships. The ship had a room for every family on the boat.
When Inga arrived in Canada her husband picked her and her little boy, Robert, up in Montreal.
Her mom and dad had enough money to buy a ticket to Canada to visit five years later. Erik's job in Canada was a waiter at a Danish restaurant because he couldn't speak English. He stayed a waiter for 3 or 4 months after Inga arrived, then he became a tool-and-die worker.
Inga, Erik, and their son lived in a basement when they first moved to Canada. When she got to her basement apartment, it had one bedroom and one bathroom. Inga could not work because she just had a second child, Tom in Etobicoke. Inga had to live like that for 6 months with her husband and her son Robert and her son Tom. Then they had a daughter Karen when she was 35 years old. Then they all moved into an apartment.
Canada is completely different from Copenhagen. Inga learned after that change can be okay; you do not always have to stay the same.