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Mrs Wilma Collignon
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enduring piece of retail history in Parramatta is intimately linked to the inspiring story of a struggling migrant family’s faith in God. MARILYN KERJEAN writes
A little piece of Catholic
history in the commercial centre of Parramatta is up for sale.
The Pellegrini Bros Catholic Devotional Gifts and Bookshop has an almost iconic status among Catholics, particularly the older generations, who
have been visiting the store in Parramatta for the past 40 years.
It has been more than just a business or a store for the owners and its customers.
For the owner it has been a constant reminder of the
providence of God.
And, for many people, visiting Pellegrini’s is simply part of the tradition associated with First Holy Comm unions and Confirmations.
But Mrs Wilma Collignon, who with her husband
John bought the business in 1961 from Vince Pellegrini, a relative of the famous Pellegrini booksellers in Sydney, now wishes to retire.
“I have loved it and I certainly will miss it,” she says. “I’m sort of
an icon in Parramatta, because very few of the old firms are still here (Pellegrini’s has been a Parramatta institution for about 100 years).
“I bought the shop because I was asked, but I think this was
Providence. When my husband died, because all the children were still studying, I thought: ‘I have to make a living,’ so I went fully into it then.”
The Collignons, who lived near the Dutch city of Rotterdam,
which was devastated by bombing during World War II, arrived in Australia as newlyweds on December 14, 1951.
Their new life was hard at first. They settled in the mountains in Healesville, east of Melbourne,
where they lived in a small hut without electricity or running water.
But neither was a stranger to hard work; and they always seemed to have what they needed.
Wilma and John bought the devotional
gifts and bookshop in 1961, when it was in Phillip St, Parramatta. It has always been a family concern.
All six of their children have spent time over the years helping in the shop. That tradition continues
today with Wilma’s grandchildren working part-time behind the counter.
“Customers still come from all over the place,” says Wilma. “I also often get phone calls from the country, but they will come here from
Sutherland, Mascot and those places.”
Wilma, a parishioner at St Bernadette’s, Castle Hill, won’t try to proselytise customers, nor will she allow her staff to succumb to the temptation to put forward their
own beliefs.
She doesn’t need to. As she assists a man who enters to choose a religious medal, it seems that this is a bookseller motivated less by the bottom dollar than supporting others in their faith.
“I also keep the bibles for other Churches, because there has been no other Christian bookshop here for many years,” she says. “I found that people wanted to go somewhere to buy a bible where they weren’t trying
to sell the religion.
“People come and say to me ‘Look I’m not a Catholic but my grandchild is making their First Communion; could you advise me in something?’. I think it’s very nice of them to do that and
they also feel comfortable.
“I think that’s why we’ve existed so long, because people feel they’re not pushed.”
As well as selling statuary, posters, bibles and other books you’d expect to find in a
religious bookshop, Pellegrini’s has also supplied textbooks to Catholic schools in the area.
The way that came about was also providential, says Wilma.
When the area became more developed and
corporations began to branch out to Parramatta from Sydney, the rent at Phillip St became too high. She decided to close.
But a doctor from a prominent Catholic family offered some shop space in a nearby
street for the same price they had been paying originally.
He also suggested the addition of school textbooks to the inventory, and within two years business was booming.
“It’s funny how things have
happened in my life,” says Wilma. “I had lots of trouble. I had fires twice in the old shop.”
That was arson, which caused considerable damage and heartache.
But things have always worked out for the best.
Now the bookseller for God is looking forward to spending more time with her 24 grandchildren and returning to the folk art she enjoys.
Apart from the
store, another important work of the Collignon family has been their involvement since 1968 with the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, then known as Iron Curtain Church Relief.
Wilma
and John were asked by their Dutch migrant chaplain, Fr Chris Coenen to take over the work started in Australia in 1963.
They agreed because they sympathised with the millions of Christians trapped behind
the Iron Curtain.
When John died in 1976, their daughter Ann carried on the work voluntarily until 1990.
Son Phillip and his wife Debbie now continue the work on a full-time basis.
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