Romanian woman grateful for the life she and her son have built in Enfield

Nov. 24—When Silvia Salvari looks back on the first Thanksgiving that she and her son, Silviu, celebrated in Enfield more than 30 years ago, she is overcome with gratitude for the way their lives as immigrants from Romania have turned into what she calls the American dream.

Today, Silvia owns and operates Silvia's Thompsonville Café on Pleasant Street, serving international gourmet food. On top of that, she is writing a cookbook and an autobiographical screenplay.

Even more important to her, Silvia's cherished 47-year-old Silviu is happy, healthy, employed in an office, delivers newspapers, and is living with roommates. Earlier this month, he celebrated his 25th anniversary with the nonprofit MARC Inc. of Manchester, which cares for and houses challenged adults.

He doesn't speak but understands Romanian and English and communicates with his mother through sign language.

Silviu has friends, enjoys music, swimming, going to restaurants, and participating in the recreational programs MARC offers, his mother said.

She can't thank MARC enough for the support its staff provided for her son.

"They trained Silviu and helped make him who he is today," Silvia said. "They took care of him like a child of their own."

Silvia also gives thanks to the Enfield community for welcoming and helping her since her arrival in 1984. "The town of Enfield adopted us," she said.

However, life was not always so easy for the mother and son.

Silviu was deprived of oxygen during birth and, as a result, had trouble functioning as a child. But there was nowhere to get help for him in Romania, Silvia said. In fact, doctors said she should institutionalize her son, forget about him, and have other children.

"When you are a mother, the love for one's child is so strong that you'll do anything," she said. "Love is strong enough to conquer anything."

Silvia was determined to provide her son with the chance to live a full life, so she left her homeland with her husband, John, and came to the United States without knowing the language.

The Ministry of Health in Romania referred Silvia to a colleague in Philadelphia, who he said could help her son. That doctor offered his services for free and treated Silviu with medication and exercises.

With enough medicine to last a year, the family returned to Romania, but when Silvia traveled back to Philadelphia for an annual review, the doctor told her it wouldn't be good for her son to go back and forth between the two countries.

Her husband did not want to return to the United States, so Silvia came alone with Silviu, this time to Enfield, where she knew a family.

The living conditions in the family's house were less than ideal, she said.

Not knowing what to do next, she went to the Enfield American Baptist Church on Post Office Road and asked for help. It was there that Silvia met who she said must have been angels, particularly board member Mona McCourt. The congregation sponsored her and her son, providing their first Thanksgiving in their new country.

Silvia began going to the church on Sundays to help clean it, and McCourt asked her to come to her house and help cook for her family. Eventually, Silvia began to clean the house and then cleaned and cooked for friends of the family.

The church helped her find an apartment on Pearl Street and sent people to the house to teach her English and how to drive. Friends even helped her make business cards for a catering business.

"That's when I started to get on my feet," Silvia said.

Silviu attended public school in Enfield and then the district sent him to the Benhaven School in Wallingford for specialized education.

Silvia worked in several local restaurants as a cook and then bought a restaurant in Suffield before eventually buying two buildings and opening restaurants in Enfield, one of which was on North Main Street and now houses Loaves and Fishes, a nonprofit soup kitchen.

Silvia credits her success to hard work and grit but also to God.

"I've been through so much, but Jesus never left my side," she said. "He sent people my way to help me so I was never alone."

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