Lina G.

I don’t remember the day that my mother got diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, I was too young. However, I do remember a lot of days after it. I remember the day we had to sell our house because my mom could no longer get up the stairs. I remember the day my parents got separated and my dad left. I remember the day my mom lost her license because she couldn’t stop in time to prevent our car from hitting the vehicle in front of us. I remember the day that I went to live with my dad, and my mom went to live in a care home. I remember her crying. I remember all these days but most of them happened before I even knew what was going on.

I was seven years old when I went to live with my dad, and my mother didn’t pass away until 10 years later. My mother was a homeowner, she had an amazing career as a red seal chef. Unfortunately, due to her illness, her ability to make smart financial decisions lessened. However, she had still been smart enough to have a life insurance policy, just not for much. The money from the policy can in no way make up for not having my mother here but it helped slightly with the financial burden, and I wish it could’ve helped more. I recently found out that my father declared bankruptcy while taking on some of my mother’s debts even though they hadn't been together for a decade. That’s something I wish I had known sooner, maybe I could’ve been more helpful. I know she did her best and perhaps she couldn’t get a better policy due to her illness. But I know when I have children that I am going to make sure that my life insurance policy is enough to cover any debts and to set them up, so that they do not have to worry about how they are going to afford to attend school without going into debt.

I am applying for this scholarship to help finance my first year in the registered nursing program at Douglas College. I’ve known that I wanted to be a nurse since I was 13, after spending so much time in the care homes where my mom was staying. The nurses always took a special interest in me and made the time that I was visiting my mom better. I got my first job at 15 to help support myself. After working for a while part-time and going to school, eventually, I dropped out and started working full-time. Now at the age of 21, come June, I finally get to walk across the stage and get my high school diploma! My mother's illness affected myself and my family long before she died, and continues to affect us long after, but knowing how proud she would be of us for how far we’ve come makes it a little easier every day.