This is the second of a two-part story about Nives and Duilio Caon. Part 2 covers the life of Nives Caon nee Cescato, beginning life in her mother’s boarding house and balancing family with the building business in partnership with Duilio and enjoying opportunities to experience life.
The image above shows the Cescato family, Clorinda seated between Nives and Guido, and Angelo standing on the right. The others are a group of friends and this was taken at the Cescato boarding house about 1938.
Nives Cescato was born on the first floor of a house in the west end of Adelaide on 7th March 1932, the daughter of Angelo Cescato and Clorinda Balestrin. An older brother, Guido, was four years older, and a sister, Linda, was born 15 years after Nives.
Arrival of Nives’ parents 1928
Angelo Cescato (1905 – 1985) was born in San Vito di Altivole and Clorinda (1907 – 1986) had been born in Spineda, about a kilometre away.
Angelo and Clorinda had migrated to Adelaide in January 1928 and Nives thinks it was partly as a result of the sadness of her mother’s loss of twin daughters – one had been born dead and the other lived for a short time. There was also the incentive of family reunion because Clorinda’s father, Federico Balestrin, a widower, was already living in Adelaide with his four daughters and two sons who had migrated after Clorinda and Angelo’s wedding in 1927. A third son joined the family in 1928.
For a time, Nives’ father worked for Chinese market gardeners at Richmond, not far from the City and this gave him skills to start his own garden with the help of Clorinda after Nives was born. However, the Depression years were tough for market gardeners and the venture was not successful. Angelo returned to work for the Chinese gardeners and Clorinda helped her sister, Elena, in a boarding house she was running with their father, Federico, in Waymouth Street. Later Angelo worked in a factory and during the Second World War, was employed in a munitions factory.
The vision of the future
In the 1930s, Clorinda and Angelo were young migrants who wanted to create a better life at a particularly challenging economic period. Clorinda had a vision of developing a business that would enable her to work and assist the family financially. She also wanted to provide opportunities for her children in secondary schooling which she had not been able to access in Italy. The experience of assisting her sister in the boarding house prompted Clorinda to start her own sometime in the late 1930s.
The boarding house at Waymouth Street
In a document that Nives wrote for her grandchildren so that they would know more about her early life, she explained her mother’s role in the boarding house:
She was like a mother to them. She did all the work herself, making the beds, cleaning, washing, ironing and of course, cooking for them… It was nothing for her to be still up at 1am and then up again at 5:30 am to get breakfast for her husband and boarders… One thing I remember well. We lived in a multicultural pocket. We had Australian, Greek, Lebanese, Aboriginal, Maltese, Arab, and of course, Italian families as neighbours and I do not remember any racist remarks thrown around. Everyone got on with everyone.
Approximately 13 men lived in the boarding house in six bedrooms spread over two buildings. While the majority were Italian, Nives remembered Hungarian and men from Baltic countries. The men became like members of the Cescato family and everyone ate the evening meal together. The children served the meals and washed up.
Nives and Guido had their allocated jobs before school – Nives cleaned the bathrooms and helped making cut lunches for the men. Guido made beds and also assisted with lunches. Both of them washed breakfast dishes.
On the property, Nives’ father had a vegetable garden and raised chickens and Nives’ mother grew flowers which were always in the boarding house. The men who lived in the boarding house became like family members. Clorinda and Angelo cared for the boarders and demonstrated kindness and respect and their children had opportunities to understand difference and what it meant to be inclusive of others. Nives remembered that she and Guido helped the men with taxation and sponsorship forms when they wanted to bring members of their family to Australia.
Surgery at 8 years and a difficult outcome
When she was 8 years old, Nives had an operation on her mastoid in her inner ear and as she said, “the surgery went horribly wrong … a facial nerve was cut resulting in total deafness in the right ear, and my face slipped to one side.” The surgeon removed her right eardrum as a life-saving intervention. Nives remembered her mother stayed with her all day and night for the whole time she was in hospital. It was a challenge for a young girl to experience the change in her appearance and one of her teachers made sure that her classmates understood the circumstances.
Schooling
Nives loved school at St Marys Dominican Convent in Franklin Street – a couple of streets away. Her parents were involved with the school and particularly on Sports Days. After completing primary school her father thought it was time for Nives to get a job because in the Italian tradition, education for daughters beyond primary years was not considered important since they would marry and there would be no need for schooling. Her mother understood the value of education for her children and made sure that Nives completed four years of secondary school.
Nives was popular at school, involved in sport, was captain of the netball (now basketball) team and became Head Prefect. The friendships she made at school have continued through the years and Nives has organised regular gatherings of the ‘St Marys’ girls’ which sometimes included the nuns who had taught them.
When Nives was still at school, she met Duilio Caon who was boarding with his uncle in the next street. The two families spent time together and although Nives was 16 and Duilio was 20, they developed a friendship.
Teaching career
Nives had always wanted to be a teacher but when she left school, was just a few days too young to enrol in Teachers College. Fortunately, there was a junior teaching program which meant that she could teach in one-teacher school in the country.
She was 17 when she became a junior teacher at Jervois about 100 kilometres south-east of Adelaide. At this time, Linda was just two years old.
It was most unusual in 1949 for Italian parents to allow their daughter to leave home but they would have been comforted a little because Nives lived with a Veneto family who came from the same village as her father, San Vito d’Altivole.
Nives reflected on her time at Jervois: “This year also helped me to mature and mix with all types of people and children. I am sure that my love of teaching stemmed from that practical year of junior teaching.”
Marriage and teaching
At the beginning of 1950, Nives enrolled at Teachers College and completed the two-year course in December 1951. Nives and Duilio married in January 1952 and instead of having a honeymoon, they decided their money would be better spent on buying a lounge suite in their house in Torrensville!
They began married life as two energetic young people who worked hard in their respective jobs located quite near their house at Torrensville; Nives as a teacher and Duilio was working at the new airport at West Beach.
Nives’ first teaching job was at Lockleys Primary School and she thrived as a young teacher and involved herself in activities. For example, she became Sports Mistress and she sometimes brought migrant children home to help them with their English. Nives also taught English to adult migrants at night time twice a week.
Balancing family life with business
Nives balanced family life with assisting Duilio after he started his business in 1953. David was born in 1956, Anne in 1958 and Sandra in 1961. Alan lived for a short time after he was born in 1967.
Nives undertook the administrative work while Duilio did the physical work. At first, she did the books and learned on the job. As more houses were built by Danny Caon Pty Ltd, Nives chose interior fittings like tiles and white goods. The business was recognised with numerous awards for excellence in building.
Activities threaded through Nives’ life
Throughout her life, Nives has enjoyed opportunities to spend time with other people whether it was through sports – netball and basketball and bocce – or through social gatherings. She and Duilio have travelled widely and spent extended periods of time in Italy.
Nives has enjoyed the company of the ‘St Marys’ girls’ and the get togethers which sometimes included the Dominican sisters.
In 2023, Nives attended a gathering for past students and teachers at St Marys College from the 1940s to the 1980s. Nives was the oldest past student to share memories of her school days.
Nives has enjoyed adventures such as jumping out of a plane for her 66th birthday and climbing the Sydney Harbour bridge when she was 85. She was acknowledged for giving her last blood donation (104) when she was 80 years old.
The lessons that Nives learned from her parents and the experience of living as a family in the boarding house provided a strong foundation for appreciating and respecting other people – and creating opportunities for widening her understanding and knowledge throughout her life.
Nives and Duilio love spending time with their children, their six grandchildren and the newest addition to the family, Olearia, their great-granddaughter who arrived in June 2024.
Madeleine Regan and Nives Caon nee Cescato
1 December 2024
All photos, apart from one provided by Maria Rosa Tormena, were supplied by Nives.