Eileen Virginia (Belmonte) Infuso
Eileen Virginia Belmonte was born in Toronto on Franklin Ave. (Dupont and Dundas) on Jan. 6th, 1929 to Italian immigrants, Caroline and Frank Belmonte. She was the 4th of 5 children. She attended Christie Pitts Elementary School and then Western Tech High School. Her best friend, Carrie (Sweeney) Polito lived across the street on Frankin Ave. They were each other’s Maid of Honour and remained best friends for 85 years. Eileen was good at sports and won races at school. Carrie remembers Eileen winning a racing championship for not only the school but perhaps for all of Ontario!
In 1940, when Eileen was 11, she marched, along with her parents and her younger brother, Ray in the Orange Parade with other Orangemen of the community. Her parents belonged to St. Paul’s Italian United Church. They brought the family every Sunday and dressed in appropriate attire with the Orange sash and white gloves to march annually in this Parade.
In 1945, at 16, Eileen’s first job was in a Laundry at Keele and Dundas. This Laundry had an exclusive contract with the King Eddie Hotel. Eileen became an expert at folding the sheets/towels and shirts as they came out of the pressing machines. She then took a job at Tip Top Tailors sewing buttons on men’s vests. She remembered her first day where the boss would say, “When you get to 100 you can stop and go home. She had completed 27 vests on her first day and wondered, “How am I ever going to get to 100!”… But before too long she had 100 vests done by 2:30. By the late ‘40’s, the men’s vests were going out of style so Eileen was transferred to the coat dept. sewing buttons on coats. She wasn’t too happy there so after 4 years she left Tip Top Tailors.
During her late teen years, she would go dancing with her friend Carrie to the Palais Royal and danced the jitterbug to the big band music with all the eligible men till midnight when they would take the streetcar home together. One night, Eileen was invited to a “Sadie Hawkins” dance with 8 other couples. Originally her sister Verna set her up on a blind date with Victor Infuso but at 19, Eileen thought a 30 year old man was a bit old for her. Verna said, “Well there is younger brother named Lloyd who was 24”. Eileen agreed and went out on the blind date with Lloyd. Even though it was a “Sadie Hawkins’ dance, (girls ask the boys and pay their way) Lloyd wouldn’t let Eileen pay for him. They were both smitten with each other. Ironically, Lloyd’s mother, Marietta Infuso, was a midwife and helped deliver babies in the little Italy neighbourhood and helped to deliver Eileen.
In 1949 at the age of 20, her next job was at General Electric where she was threading lamp coils. She worked the afternoon shift from 3:00 – 11:00 and Lloyd, her steady, would pick her up from work every night. She was laid off from GE at the age of 22 and found a job advertised in the newspaper for $50.00 a week working at IBM. Her cousin Raymo, the Taxi-Cab driver, drove her to her interview and $50.00 per week was good money in those days. She worked there putting silicone coils on T.V parts. The detail of her work was so good that the boss took around her coil to show all the other workers (who had been there for years!)
Lloyd proposed in 1952 and in those days, when a woman got married, they had to leave work. So she left after only 2 years at IBM. At the age of 24 she married Lloyd Infuso at the High Park United Church on Sept. 5, 1953. She lived with Lloyd and his mother, 2 of Lloyd’s brothers and their wives in his mother’s triplex at 30 Ford St. (St. Clair and Davenport) for 4 years while Lloyd worked as a draftsman for American Standard and they saved money. While living there, Eileen took sewing courses and became quite the seamstress making linens, pillow cases, embroidery and dresses. Two years later, in 1956 their son Randy was born and in 1958, they moved to 50 Braywin Drive in Etobicoke. Karen was born 4 years later, on Eileen’s birthday, and they lived there for the next 40+ years. Even as a new mom, Eileen was always impeccably dressed, all put together and very stylish.
Eileen and Lloyd enjoyed bringing the kids to a rented cottage in Collingwood for one month in the summer from 1964-67. Eileen also enjoyed the Sunday visits to Lloyd’s mothers’ house for Infuso family lunches and then off to her mothers’ house for Sunday Belmonte family dinners. Her brother Jimmy was a painter and Eileen learned to paint as well. She could paint houses, inside and out, along with the best of them and taught Karen how to properly prep and paint a room as well as a professional. She brought Randy and Karen to Sunday school every week at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church. In the mid-‘60’s Eileen volunteered as a group leader in CGIT (Christian Girls in Training) at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church while Karen was in COC (Children of the Church) and Randy was in the Cub Scouts at St. Phillips Anglican Church.
Eileen thoroughly enjoyed staying home, being a homemaker and raising her children. Elieen’s home was her palace and her family was her treasure and joy. She became an avid gardener and kept the ‘rolling hills” of 50 Braywin Drive in impeccable, manicured condition with lush green grass and a perfectly manicured hedge. (She learned all this from her parents, who kept their home immaculate inside and out) The house on Braywin was also immaculate. Girlfriends would come over and Karen would bring them up to her bedroom and they would be afraid to sit on the bed because it was so beautifully made.
In the swinging ‘60’s with her frosted hair and white Go-Go boots, Eileen would join her sister Corrine and friends and go nightclubbing - watching their brother, lounge singer drummer, comedian and entertainer, Ray Belmonte. For those years, they would go to nightclubs and be entertained by her brothers’ hilarious antics. In 1966, Eileen joined the Tuesday Afternoon Rexdale Ladies’ Bowling League. She was a very good bowler and took the bus to bowl every week for over 20 years. She also enjoyed frequently visiting her sister, Verna, in Buffalo.
Kids from the neighbourhood would convene in our backyard because it was the best place to be. With Lloyd driving us all over to parks, fairs and movies and Eileen feeding us fabulous food, there was so much love, joy and happiness in that house. Eileen was the ‘hostess with the mostess’’ and would host many house parties in the basement on Braywin. After they installed the above- ground pool, in 1975, they hosted annual pool parties on Lloyd’s birthday every year in June. Eileen was an excellent cook of Italian food, making homemade Italian sausage, lasagna, ravioli, gnocchi and doughnuts on a regular basis and her spaghetti sauce was 2nd to none. When Karen and her husband Steve went to Italy, none of the food could compare with Eileen’s cooking!... Karen and Steve gave up, early in the trip, and moved on to eating seafood and gelato!
Eileen was also a phenomenal baker. Making pies, cookies and cakes on a weekly basis… much to Lloyd’s and everyone else’s delight! Randy would bring home his musician friends and they would be awestruck at the homemade Italian meal along with a special homemade dessert! In the mid ‘70’s, when her children were teens, Eileen took a job as a presser at Martins’ Cleaners on Islington Avenue. She never drove but was very good at navigating her way around on the bus.
She enjoyed entertaining and cooking for her family and friends. Besides her husband and her children, her best loved treasures were her spaghetti sauce pot and her wooden spoons. People would come from far and wide to have Eileen’s pasta sauce. No matter who would pop in, there was always room and always enough. She also liked doing crossword puzzles, word search and took up rug hooking, knitting and became very good at making designer sweaters for her family. There was nothing she couldn’t paint, sew, clean or cook. And every item she tackled had her own special ingredient…. Love.
She and Lloyd were elated when their granddaughter, Jennifer was born in 1980. They so looked forward to when Jen would stay with them every weekend and even as an adult, Jen still came by every Sunday for dinner. Even these days, Jen still visited Mom every Sunday.
Eileen’s good natured way came from a genuine sense of a playful heart. She possessed infectious joy always seeing the positive side of life no matter what the situation… with an incessant, happy laugh and a bright smile. I believe her mission in life was to bring joy and happiness to all those around her. She had a love for family and a zest for living. We wish her spirit a safe journey!
