Many people in the area do not know their family history.
Michael Pomedli just made his up.
Pomedli read from his new work of fiction, They Became Canadian, at the Humboldt and District Gallery on Nov. 26.
Pomedli took his grandparents and wrote stories about their immigration from Hungary to living in the Humboldt area.
The story starts in 1903 when Pomedli’s grandparents, Istvan and Julia, immigrated from Hungary and it goes until about the end of World War II but they remember Hungary in flashbacks.
“They go back in their remembrances to shortly after they were born, their marriage, hard times with the nobles.” Says Pomedli.
There was a lot of research involved, especially when it came to the history of the area. Pomedli says he scoured all the local history books he could find.
The University of Saskatchewan library also was an important source for Hungarian customs and histories.
Pomedli says his grandparents did not really talk about their lives so researching the time and area they lived told him more about them.
“You get an idea of what they might have been like and it’s more in terms of a disposition, or attitude, or affective way, it’s not cold hard historical facts but it’s their story.”
The past was something they left behind, says Pomedli.
“I knew my grandparents, but not very well. I conversed with them in Hungarian, I lived with them when I was 3 or 4 years old but what does a person who’s that age really know about asking the right questions?” Says Pomedli.
For an immigrant, leaving home was a sacrifice for their children and grandchildren, says Pomedli. Family, history, language, and customs were something that was left behind.
Pomedli says he speaks about that anxiety in his book.
He recalls his grandmother saying that when she was lonely and wanted to go back to Hungary, she’d go on top of the highest hill hoping to see her homeland.
Pomedli says he has great kinship with current refugees. Unlike the refugees coming to Canada now, his grandparents were not destitute and in comparison were quite well off. If his grandparents had not come to Canada, he does not know how his life would have been different.
“If they had not have immigrated, I would not be here.” He says.
