The Carpenter

The Carpenter

Silvio Rosato immigrated to Montreal in the late fifties. Upon his first day of arrival, he met Dave Damonti (an Italian policeman on the Montreal Police Force) who immediatly warned him of Italian haters that walked the streets. It was the beginning of long-lasting friendship, a friendship which is typical to minorities in big cities. Later, Dave Damonti found a house for the Rosato family which was in the neighborhood of other Italian families. This way of integration is still widely observed in Montreal regardless the nationality.
At the beginning, Silvio had a hard time keeping it straight as he drank and gambled to get money faster so his family could join him as soon as possible: his family meant the world to him. It was the same thing for Carmella Rosato, Silvio's wife and mother of their three children, who constantly tried to keep the family strongly bonded. Also, when the time came, she was not able to accept the fact that Silvio needed to be placed in a centre for the elderly: she felt she was giving up on him.
As the years went by, the descendants of the Rosato, Maria, Liliana and Luciano grew watching helplessly their father lose his memory and motivity while he continued drinking daily. Furthermore, Silvio had intense flashbacks of his time passed in World War II. Maria tried to ignore those episodes; Liliana expressed her concern everytime by attempting to reasoned her siblings that something had to be done while Luciano thought everything was due to alcoolism. Also, Liliana's anxiety pushed her to blame Maria for being too preoccupied with herself and blame Luciano for being there only to get a free lunch, as if she was the only one helping. After many dialogues and a series of events that brings closer, they managed to do what was right for their parents: bring Silvio to a doctor, Dr. Lewis, and follow her professional advice.
Alcoolism, gambling, racism, work conditions, small lodging and so on, are all issues that were facing immigrants then, and still nowadays.