On one blistering summer day, an extended family of immigrants considers the prospects and tribulations of life in their adopted country.

Mom, her eyes twinkling, hands me a crinkling bag as soon as I walk through the door. I look at the plastic package labeled “Navajo-print Nylon Dress.” The Navajo print looks as if it was designed by someone in a third-world factory, who based it on a description given by a French tourist, who got it from an ironic Swede, who was described it by a blind American, who may have flown over Arizona in the 1940’s.

The Aunts who lived in the house on Montrose were the rock of the family, welcoming and nurturing all members, especially those deemed to be in need of their loving care.

Making a new life in a new country can be amazing, wonderful, scary, and sometimes traumatizing, but how you meet and beat those challenges can define you as a person and make you stronger. New immigrants and their progeny did just that when coming to Canada in the fifties.