Migration Letter (Reposted)

Lily Rose

Christchurch, New Zealand

May 17th 1950

           James Rose

London, England

Dear, Mother and Father

Life had been remarkably challenging back in London, it’s started to get overcrowded there hence the lack of job opportunity, I know you guys will acknowledge my dreams and let me pursue to be a well-known tailor, I always had admired tailoring clothes and I wouldn’t be able to reach my dreams with the lack of opportunities there. Children are also being exploited, forcing them to work in dangerous conditions making me worry about my future child’s fate if I stay there. The houses are also poorly made having no running water and toilet inside leading to share bathrooms with strangers, on top of that they’re built so close together, leaving me no privacy, all I could hear all day and night was our neighbour’s gossips. The pollution, it’s starting to get even worse the air is all covered in a thick black fog if I didn’t leave my lungs would be filled with that disgusting thing by now. The pollution and lack of running water in the houses isn’t helping with the diseases either, I can’t risk my health anymore almost everyone in our neighbourhood has caught a disease at least one at a household gets Typhus, Typhoid, and Cholera from drinking dirty water that contains faeces due to the poor water filter system. Please be careful of the disease going around, only if you guys agreed upon my request of migrating to another country I wouldn’t have left you there (I’m deeply sorry for being selfish).

As you know one month prior to my migration, I was seeking for a job, I travelled all over the city looking for companies that would hire a tailor, this was when I found a poster promoting a new life in another country, it felt like it was calling my name and is the only way out of this hell, the picture was very enticing, so I decided to pursue it.

Before boarding the ship, I had mix feelings, I contemplated whether or not to stay, to leave everything behind there including my family and friends but  I’m glad to say that I made the right decisions living here but sadly I couldn’t say the same about the trip. The steerage had a wood interior, it wasn’t as big as I thought especially for the number of people boarding, the majority of the spaces was taken up by rows of bunk bed that stack up to three, enough to fit a slender person, in the middle are long tables for passengers to lounge in. The ship was filled with families, many children ran around despite the tight space, the sound of the babies crying still echoes in my ear reminding me about my family leaving me to feel very lonely, I couldn’t help but tear up. Halfway through the trip, it felt like I was losing my mind, I even had thoughts of jumping out of the ship, sick of smelling body odour that surrounds  the atmosphere, and looking at the same layout, faces and eating the same plain, dried, tasteless food they serve every day, during that time, mum, I missed your cooking, I wanted to go home and run up to your arms. The only thing that kept me sane was the books that I brought and the sea life we pass through admiring the beautiful creation making me forget about the never-ending trip, they also hold concerts inside the ship to entertain passengers but it still couldn’t help me erase the memories of witnessing the number of deaths on board. The diseases were caused by the lack of hygiene, we had limited fresh water supplies that weren’t able to clean everyone and had a restriction of being able to drink 3.4 litres of water a day.

All of the sufferings came to a halt when I arrived in paradise. Getting off the ship a smell of fresh air entered my nose, the cold breeze made my skin shivered but the sun made it warm again. At first, I was lost, I didn’t know where to go but I found it very exciting, I admit that I enjoyed being independent building my own legacy and starting a new life from scratch. After migrating here I met a lot of new friends, they toured me around the country, they took me to  all the beautiful places here, driving around, I haven’t seen anything bad about this place, it was perfect, not a single pollution was in the air, the ground was still covered in greenery and hills were still filled with trees and bushes, the mountain's peak wasn’t visible due to the long white cloud covering it, and the rivers were still clear as glass. Being beautiful and clean wasn’t the only advantage this place had, it also has a lot of new opportunities not just for me but my future children, unlike London where people struggled looking for a job, companies here are actually the one seeking for people. Did I mention that I got a job as I tailor? It has a good paycheck, more than enough to feed myself. I also meet new customers every day that compliments my work recommending me to their friends, that encourages me to stay inspired to what I do and continue pursuing my dreams of being a famous tailor. Despite feeling like I was living a lavish life, I still felt like something was missing, I miss you guys, maybe after reading this it will somehow convince you to migrate here with me and hopefully, this would lessen your anger towards me. I had saved up enough to buy a house that could fit the whole family in, settling here isn’t hard and many opportunities await...

Your Daughter,

Lily Rose