If you are walking in downtown Mission and stop at the Mission Health Care Auxiliary’s Cottage Thrift Store, chances are you will run into Marcella Cividino.
The 88-year-old has been volunteering with the Auxiliary for the past 55 years.
But her story doesn’t begin there.
Originally from Italy, Marcella came to Canada in 1958 after she met Dominico Cividino. She married him after only two months together and the marriage lasted 58 years.
“I don’t know what made me do it, I didn’t know any better,” said Marcella.
They arrived in Vancouver and her husband worked in the logging camps. She spent six years in Gold River.
“I knew no English. I could only say no. I had two kids up there because there wasn’t very much to do, so I had a big family,” joked Marcella
In 1965, they moved to Mission, eventually having another child.
It was Peggy Staber who first introduced Marcella to the Mission Health Care Auxiliary in 1969. Now, 55 years later, she’s still volunteering.
“They needed members and so I just joined and I’ve been here ever since.”
Marcella said she has worked at several locations – as the Cottage Thrift Store moved around a bit in the early years – and in almost every department.
“I worked the best way I knew how,” she said.
In her long career, she has worked in the hospital giving tours and renting TVs to patients. However, after her husband passed, she stopped going to the hospital and spent all her volunteer time at the Cottage.
“I can go to any department and help,” she said, adding she never wanted to be “in charge”, preferring to work on the floor.
“I still work three times a week,” the 88-year-old explained, “one day on the front and two days in the back.”
Her typical work days begin at 8:30 a.m. when she heads to the Cottage and end at about 1 p.m.
“I do jewelry, socks, I used to do clothing. I know how to do it all. The only thing I don’t know how to do is the paperwork.”
But why has she continued to volunteer for 55 years?
“The friendships that you make, there’s a lot of good girls here. I get along with all of them,” said Marcella, adding that she just doesn’t want to quit yet.
She plans to stay until she can’t do it anymore, because it’s a way of getting away from home.
“I live on my own at home, I have a house and a garden, which keeps me busy, and I go to the seniors centre and play cards and carpet bowling. I live a very simple life.”
Volunteering is important to Marcella because she knows she’s working for a good cause
“You meet a lot of nice people here. I like working in the front because we have so many good customers.”
With no plans of stopping, Marcella said the Auxiliary is stuck with her.
“They can’t even fire me because I have a life membership,” she joked. “I keep telling them after all these years that I deserve a pension, but they don’t listen to me. They gave me a pin but that’s it,” she said with a laugh.
