Orphaned at a young age, Rosetta grew up in an Italian Catholic convent/orphanage to become a shy, fearful, lonely young woman.

Never visited by any family, she was eventually invited to live with her elder brother, once he married. He was a young officer in the Italian army and another brother was an officer in the Italian navy. The three siblings were condemned to experience further loss and trauma but this timid young woman was the only child to survive the terrors of the Second World War and live to an old age. Her elder brother was killed by his countrymen, the partisans, wrongly condemned for ordering executions. The other brother was sent to a German concentration camp for helping his countrymen escape from Mussolini’s Italy. He survived this nightmare to die later of cancer.

At the end of the war, on the command of the American governing military, she was persuaded to marry a Rumanian pilot when they were both interned in a refugee camp. They were then informed they would be shipped out to Argentina to work on a cattle ranch. This destination later became Virginia to work in tobacco plantations. This was the fate of Displaced Persons at that time in a country brought to its knees by powerful war mongers and the criminal. As Italy suffered post-war unemployment, little food and political instability, the American administrators made decisions about the vast number of internal refugees. The last ‘orders’ she was given in 1951 sent the family to the end of the Earth, an unknown planet of a country, Australia.

The family found itself once more shipped around to various migrant camps in Australia.

In those early years, they gradually adjusted to the strange culture, bigotry, language and ‘tasteless’ food. As history so often repeats itself, her children were sent to live in a Catholic convent in Melbourne so that the parents could earn money to buy a home. However, her husband could not overcome his war experiences. He drank, became increasing hostile and a chronic liar, lost money and relationships, to eventually disappear into the vast landscape. She suffered depression and anxiety as her photographic albums reveal. Along the way she suffered a nervous break-down. Now we would call this post-traumatic stress disorder. However, long years of struggle on her own with two young children and no professional resources didn’t defeat her.

In this land of equality of opportunities, less sexism and no rigid class structure, she survived. She scrimped and saved and with the eventual help of her elder child, she was able to buy a home for her family. Australia’s version of democracy produced a number of changes of governments and, eventually, a truly welfare state which helped many families such as hers. It is said that post-war immigration transformed this country from a cultural backwater to a sophisticated, multi-cultured pond. We must acknowledge that this country gave traumatised migrants a wholly new life and a chance to achieve personal goals which could not occur in old Europe, with its emphasis on not what you know but who you know. It enabled her to produce two adult women with tertiary education, financial security and stability. I often contemplate what might have been our fate if we had landed in Argentina in 1951 and experienced the violent dictatorships that were to come. Or, what it would be like living in America with its gun laws and poor national health. How would a woman and two babies survive on their own there?

The ‘60s and ‘70s eventually turned into the ‘80s and became her “best years of my life”.

She had her own well cared for home and garden, medical assistance and travel. She found the time then to listen to her beloved classical music and attend the occasional concert. She read avidly, mostly in English, and experienced a close bond with grand-children.

From a very humble beginning as a poor migrant I am now a psychologist, happily retired, and have a fulfilling life. As I travel the world with my own family I appreciate the things that Australia and my mother have given me. There are so many wonderful things that have come out of a brutal phase of history. I live in a place with clean air, wide open spaces, good food, a rich mix of cultures and ideas, freedom to move around and, most of all, freedom to be what I want to be. A combination of the riches of our Italian heritage, my mother’s persistence and work ethic and the freedom Australia provided has made me what I am. My own child can pursue more than one career if she wishes. She can express her political beliefs and spirituality freely and live in any style she chooses.

This country is unique in so many ways and we must ensure it continues to be the lucky country.