Two strong women
She stays here on the palliative care unit with her mom all day and all night.
As she composes her mom’s obituary and sits beside her mom holding her hand, she is remembering her vibrant, strong mom.
She thinks about her mom growing up in China and being the first woman in her family not to have bound feet.
She remembers her parents working hard during her childhood and how they lived in a very regimented, communal environment.
Her parents were proud when she finished her undergraduate University studies.
This was 1989 and students were protesting.
They gathered and demanded reforms.
The world watched first with hope and then horror as famous protests were brutally repressed.
She protested too although she did not tell her parents.
She was in another city but was so disillusioned by her government and so mistrustful that she told her mom she had to go to the west.
She knew no one there and would leave her parents behind but her mom told her to go.
She won a full scholarship and her mom got the cash for her visa.
Years later, in their 60s, her parents made the long journey to Canada and emigrated here.
Here where they feel proud to be Canadian. Where they can openly practice their Christian faith.
As she sits with her mom, she has gratitude and reflects on how beautifully staff and volunteers from all cultures are here working together taking care of her and her mom.
She is grateful for them, for the Canadian health care system, and for her mom who helped her to get to a country where she could have an education, work, raise a family, practice her religion, and speak openly about her beliefs and feelings.
