Allesandra W.

At thirteen, I heard my mother whisper through the phone, “he’s gone.” Although I felt compelled to cry, no tears came. My father passed away on a cold February day, but in reality, I lost him long before. His battle with depression and devastating health conditions slowly took him from us. For nine years, I watched his passion for life fade. His death left not only an emotional void but a financial one that profoundly shaped my path to higher education.

Upon moving to Canada in 2012, my father lost his job and sense of purpose. He fell into a deep depression, which contributed to his declining health, leading to lymphoma a year later. He beat it, but soon after, my mother developed breast cancer from the stress of his struggles while raising two children. Neither of my parents could work, and we lived off savings. In his final year, my father underwent two surgeries, got a pacemaker, and developed type II diabetes. When he passed, we had no life insurance to provide stability.

Without it, my mother had to navigate funeral expenses, household bills, and our education, all while recovering from her own health struggles. She only recently returned to work, and though I tried, she never let me work, urging me to focus on school. If my father was covered, we would have had the security to protect my mother’s well-being, stay in our home, and afford higher education. Though I was accepted to a university in the UK, international fees make attending nearly impossible. Even staying local, affording residence at McMaster or UofT is a challenge, forcing me to reconsider my options. Life insurance would have provided a foundation to pursue my aspirations without financial sacrifice.

Despite these hardships, I refused to let finances dictate my future. My mother instilled in me that education was my path forward. Knowing how much she had sacrificed, I pushed myself academically, maintaining a 94% average in the International Baccalaureate program. I took on responsibilities at home, helping my brother with schoolwork and assisting my mother so she could focus on recovery. My father grew up in poverty and fought to provide for us. His resilience and dreams for our family fuel my own: earning a PhD in neuroscience, researching neurodegenerative disorders, and making science-backed mental health tools more accessible.

This scholarship would ease our financial burden and help me achieve my goal of improving lives through research and education. My experience reinforced the importance of financial preparedness. Life insurance isn’t just about money, but about security, allowing families to grieve without financial devastation.

A year ago, my mother handed me a notebook my father wrote in for me. There was only one entry, dated June 16, 2010: “More than anything, I want you to know me and to remember me.” Though I will never fully know him, I carry his resilience forward and his dream to give people better than he had, to heal the world in any way possible.