My Grandmother's Laundry

Johnming Mark came to Canada in 1964 with his mother and brothers, largely thanks to the hard work of his paternal grandparents who ran a laundry at 8 Brock Ave. in Parkdale.

When John arrived, his grandfather had passed away and his grandmother, who could not speak English and could not write in Chinese, nevertheless continued to run the laundry effectively and profitably.

John has sketched the old washing machine he remembers and the clothes hung in a room, heated by a coal-burning stove, to dry. In his early teens, John helped after school, doing the ironing, and watched his mother doing piecework, sewing on an old treddle Singer Sewing Machine.

To this day, he credits those experiences with fabrics and sewing for his interest in art, textile design and quilting.