Successful Immigrant

We hear so many nasty stories of people who immigrate into Canada and abuse the welfare system paid for by the hard working Canadians but this isn't one of those stories.


Last week I was selling my goods at a Salvation Army yard sale and, as usual, met a lot of interesting and very nice people.  It's been my experience in life that about 99.9% of the people you meet are very nice and the other .1% are the tiny minority that unfairly make us think that mankind is a scourge on the earth.


One of my customers was a lovely lady who had come alone to Canada from Africa in 1989 as a 21 year old woman who spoke no English.  She studied and took advantage of all the programs available to immigrants aimed at helping them settle into their new country.  I'm not sure if she said she was a registered nurse or a nursing assistant but she now specializes in foot care at various clinics in the city.  She said that Canada is the most wonderful country in the world and you can make anything you want of yourself here if you work hard.  I was so impressed by this lady who is the epitome of what we want our immigrants to be.


She made us laugh when she added that she'd gone back to her birth country and dragged her boyfriend back here to Canada, married him and produced 2 sons.  Her sons have a mother to be proud of, too, because she was awfully brave to come half way across the world on her own in order to make a better life for herself and her offspring.  


She also added that she sends money home regularly to her mother who takes in homeless children and who is providing the basics of life for 7 of them right now.  We never really know or appreciate how good we have it in Canada until we hear stories like this, do we?  Life in Africa (she didn't say which country) is like nothing we native Canadians have ever experienced.  


Something I've enjoyed very much is the freedom we senior women have to converse with strangers, even men, because there is no misunderstanding of our intentions.  I wasn't nearly so chatty in my younger years but age has given me confidence and I love the chances I get to meet interesting people and learn a bit about them.  By opening up like this, I've expanded my world and that's a good thing.