Adelfina: An Immigrant’s story.

These days, the daily papers and even daily TV broadcasts are only telling stories about immigrants not casting a favorable light. These broadcast all end with a common theme: “Keep them out.”
My mother, a young immigrant from Southern Italy, came to America at age 12, leaving her friends and family behind. Adelfina, my mother’s name, saw only fear and panic in her future in another country that was not her own. She faced losing her close friends, weeks of ocean travel on a huge ship, and leaving her village that she rarely left.

 All she could see in leaving were challenges which left her future wrapped in worries. She only saw obstacles in this new land called America: a strange and different language, a landscape not like where she grew up, and “strangers” who spoke a language she had never heard before.

 Her future seemed bleak. Why was God doing this to her? She wanted to die rather than face a life of such emptiness. Clutching her rosary and praying silently to Mary, she soon felt comforted. Wrapping herself in her faith and Mary’s protection, her entire family soon prospered in this new land.

 Praying the rosary my mother, a twelve-year-old, allowed faith to fill her unhappy heart. Her faith reminded her that God indeed was accompanying her on her journey. She was suddenly aware that what once seemed impossible suddenly seemed possible.