Aldo and Marianne Formichi

Born 1930 and 1929

Wagga Wagga, NSW

“Everyone has arguments. Don’t hold a grudge, sleep on it”.

The wonderful Formichi couple, Aldo and Marianne. The two of them looked too young to be their age. They were such beautiful hard-working people.

Aldo was born in Italy in 1930 and had moved to Australia in 1952 when he was just 22 years old. He met Marianne at an immigration camp and had “chatted her up”. Marianne was from Germany and had come to Australia in 1954. The two of them have now been married for over 60 years!

Aldo’s biggest inspiration in life had been to make money and become a rich Australian. “Did you become one?” I asked, “No”, he said and laughed. But it was important for him to work hard and establish himself and create a family. For Aldo’s first job, he unloaded trucks with supplies but was never paid for it. But this clearly didn’t faze him. When I asked what the best years in Australia were, he said “as far as I’m concerned, they’re all good. Work hard, good money”.

Marianne was born in Germany in 1929. She told me how she remembers living on the road side at about 15 or 16 years old. When the Russians came, she was sleeping under a blanket at her mum’s feet. They had been quite poor back then. Her most memorable time was living in England for 5 years, around 1953. When I asked her if there was anything she would change about her life she said “crazy Catholics, my family”. Her mother used to say “remember there is a god. There will be change and everybody will get what they deserve”.

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