In November 1929, three family groups, related to Maria (Eitzen) Loewen, succeeded in securing their exit visas and emigrating to Canada. They arrived in Moscow from three different locations – Pretoria, Saratow, and New York. It is unknown if they encountered each other in Moscow, but all left for Prenzlau, Germany within 3 weeks of each other.

     In order of their departure, they were Peter & Margareta (Driedger) Sawatzky, with Abram; Anna, Helena, Wilhelm, Heinrich, and Johann Peters (all siblings¹); and Abram & Minna (Klassen) Eitzen, with Helene. They arrived in Calgary in reverse order, one week apart. All three parties travelled the same route – Moscow, Prenzlau, Liverpool, St John, Winnipeg and Calgary. Their respective journeys took 76 days (Eitzen), 106 days (Peters), and 116 days (Sawatzky).

     Waiting for them in Simons Valley were my grandparents, Abraham & Maria (Eitzen) Loewen and their family of nine children. They had arrived in 1926 and had purchased their farm in Simons Valley the next year. These were Maria’s nephews and nieces; her siblings and other family members, who had also been waiting in Moscow that fall of 1929, had failed and were either sent back home, or to a work camp. In the years ahead, Abraham and Maria would become the surrogate parents and grandparents for these young couples and their families. The Loewen home became their “place of refuge”; it was the place where they worshipped together in the early years and where they gathered to celebrate special occasions.

     I am only now appreciating the sacrifices my grandparents made in those early years, after piecing together the details of my family’s history. Not only were they quick to sponsor family and non-family² members for immigration to Canada, but they regularly sent food packages and cash to family members struggling to survive in Stalin’s Russia during the 1930s and 1940s., at a time when they struggled to “balance the books”. For me, it gives a richer meaning for the term “family ties”.