Page 7 - Bayswater Gardens Newsletter Autumn 2017_Final

7 BAYSWATER NEWS, AUTUMN 2017

Happy Birthday

We wish the following residents
a very Happy Birthday:

March
17 March Kathleen
April
28 April Neville
May
10 May Norma
12 May Chris

15 May Margaret
16 May Beverley
Meet Elvira Di Bella

Elvira was born on the Island of Salina which is one of the seven islands that make up the Eolian Islands in Italy. Elvira has
two brothers and she is the eldest of the children in her family. Elvira went to school in Salina and she had many friends.
When she wasn’t at school, she often helped in the kitchen or minded her brothers while her parents worked.
Sometimes she would help in the fields with her best friend Lina and they loved to sing songs while they worked.
The Island of Salina is very small with an even smaller population to match. Practically all the families who lived on the
Island grew most of the crops as they needed to be self‐sufficient. They grew tomatoes to make sauce, grew olives,
made their own bread and oil. They also grew capers, fruit trees and even had a cow or two to look after. Life was very
simple in those days. At the age of 16, Elvira and her family migrated to Australia where they shared a house with
relatives who had migrated a few years earlier. The relatives were working at a biscuit factory in Ashfield and managed
to get a job for Elvira in the same factory. Jobs were easy to get in those days which are not so easy to come by these
days.
While working at the biscuit factory, Elvira met, fell in love and married her husband, Peter. They were inseparable and
never spent a day of their lives apart. They loved to go on outings to the beach and Elvira became especially close with
Peter’s family. She became a very much loved member of the Di Bella family. Peter and Elvira worked extremely hard to
save a deposit for a home and eventually they bought their first home in Five Dock. Life was good and they were soon
blessed with their two children, Sam and Robert.

Elvira loved being in her own home and developed a passion for cooking. She also continued the traditions of making her
own tomato sauce. Peter would also often buy boxes of raw green or black olives at the markets and Elvira would mix
them in salt and cure them until they were ready to put in large jars. She would add chilli, oregano and garlic then fill the
jars with oil to cover the olives. She would then share them around between family and friends. She also loved to make
yummy biscuits and sweets and never needed a recipe. Elvira also loved making pumpkin scones which were always a
winner at parties and family get‐togethers.

Peter and Elvira returned to Italy twice for holidays on the Island of Salina. They also visited Peter’s family who lived on
the mainland in Italy. They loved to travel which included holidays in Cairns, the Barrier Reef and many trips to the
Central Coast where one of Peter’s sisters owned a holiday home. Elvira was also blessed with four grandchildren ‐
Annalisa and Maryanne (twins) and Adele and Adam. She loved taking care of them when they were children and they
were the apple of her eye. They are adults now but I’m certain that they appreciate the love and attention they were
given while growing up during those early years. Unfortunately, Elvira lost her very dear husband a few years ago and
worked tirelessly caring for him while he was bedridden for the last three years of his life.
Now, after all her hard work over a lifetime, she is now in the company of many wonderful people who are devoted to
making sure that she is given the care that she deserves while living and resting at Bayswater Gardens.