Page 45 - A Life - my Live - my path

The journey - coal miner’s community

The decision was made: we would all go to Belgium.
My father set off again to find a house where we could stay.
On his first trip, he had taken the train from Milan to
Charleroi, where the reception had been absolutely dreadful.
The gendarmerie were waiting for all the Italians to take
them away in tarpaulin-covered lorries to Forchies-la-
45
Marche to live in tin barracks used by the Germans during
the Second World War.

After a few months, my father finally told us that he'd found
a house. My mother began to organise our departure and
when everything was settled, we left San Giovanni
Lipioni and arrived in Belgium on 31 January 1957,
when I was just over 5 years old.

It was a long train journey, several days. To sleep,
I remember that my mother, helped by other Italians
travelling to the same destination, would put me in the
luggage net.

In Forchies-la-Marche, my father worked at pit number 10
46
(840 m).
Each coal pit consisted of 2 shafts, one for ventilation
and the other for extraction.
We stayed in the village for a few months. Then he

47
applied to work at shaft no. 14 at Goutroux (1.035 m).

45 Forchies-la-Marche is a village 10km away from Charleroi.
46 This is how the different coal mines were listed.
47 Goutroux is a village 7km away from Charleroi.
33