Emma Mauro was a stay-at-home mom who learned to speak English by watching Sesame Street with her kids.
When she decided to join the work force in 1974, Mauro found a position at the Prince George Citizen, hand inserting flyers into the newspaper. Throughout a career in the mailroom that spanned 38 years, she became part of the community, raised her children, and helped raise her grandchildren while moving up the ranks to end her career as a Citizen foreman in December, 2012.
Mauro grew up in Mangone in the south of Italy, the same village where her future husband lived. The families knew each other but 19-year-old Mauro only laid eyes on 29-year-old Mario in October 1966 for the first time. They were married on December 4, 1966.
"In those days it was different than now," said Mauro. "Back then you didn't dare go out with your boyfriend. You couldn't go anywhere alone with him before you got married. That was the culture."
With Mario's six brothers in Prince George, and Mario making the trip back and forth from Prince George to his hometown, it was a natural fit that after they wed, the couple made their way to Prince George and arrived in April 1967.
Mario worked for B.C. Rail when they first moved to Prince George, then the City of Prince George and settled into work at the Prince George Pulp Mill in 1968 until his retirement in 2002.
Their first child, Sabina, was born in August 1967. The greatest challenge for Mauro was her homesickness coupled with a great language barrier.
"I didn't know one word of English," she said. "That was a tough time."
She remembers a particularly trying time when she gave birth to Sabina. Nurses would come in to her hospital room and ask Mauro questions and she only had two responses, 'yes' and "I don't know' but she didn't understand the language so she would just pick a response and waited to see what happened.
She wondered why she kept getting glasses of milk that she didn't want.
As her daughter grew up and was joined by baby Nancy in March 1969, Mario would come home during lunch hours and coffee breaks as often as he could to support his lonely wife.
Mauro didn't get a chance to visit her family in Italy until 1974 and the only communication she had with them was letters and telegrams to announce the birth of her children because telephones were not yet in her village.
As time passed and Sabina and Nancy grew older, Mauro discovered Sesame Street on television.
Sabina, Nancy and their mom learned the alphabet, how to count and speak English together with their friends The Count, Cookie Monster and Snuffleupagus, Mauro said.
After Sabina started school, she was continually teaching her mom English.
As her daughters grew up and Mauro's language skills became stronger she decided she wanted to get a job so she could be with people.
She started work at The Citizen in 1974 as a hand inserter, which meant she would insert flyers into the paper by hand. The hourly wage was 95 cents and when the shop became unionized a few years later it jumped up to $2.
She quickly moved up the ranks to assistant shift foreman and then in 1981 became a mailer day foreman for the shipping and receiving department, a position she retired from on Dec. 26, 2012.
In 1991, Mauro's whole world changed. She became a grandma. She embraced her knew title with gusto. She said it's completely different being a grandmother compared to being a mother.
When Sabina, who still lives in Prince George, went back to work, Mauro babysat her grandson, Josh. So her day got very full very quickly.
She would babysit Josh in the morning, take him to daycare and still made it into work for her 12:15 shift each day. Jessica came along a couple of years later, and then Nancy's children Brooke and Erica came along a few years after that. Nancy and her family now live in Kelowna.
"I enjoyed every minute I had with my grandchildren," said Mauro. "That time never comes back and it was beautiful."
As the grandchildren have grown up around her, they fondly recall the special times with their grandmother.
Sabina's very lovely surprise is Chianti who is now just two and a half years old.
"Children are a gift from God," said Mauro. "She is such a smart little girl - she is two going on nine."
Between working and spending time with family, Mauro and her husband found time to travel. They have gone back to visit family in Italy a few times and vacationed in Cuba, Mexico, and traveled all over California in a motorhome and finally found their favourite spot in Honolulu and spend a month there at a time each year.
Mauro recalls her days at The Citizen fondly.
"When I worked at The Citizen it was just like family," said Emma. "We had so much fun and I made a lot of good friends there."
As part of The Citizen's 100th anniversary in February, we're sharing stories of local residents who played a role in the newspaper's success over the years.
If you have a story to tell, we'd love to hear it and share it with our readers. Drop us a line at [email protected].
