Once in a while you hear the success stories like this that make you want to jump up and down and scream at the top of your voice and say “Yay”
She is a very dear friend of mine. The youngest sister of 5 brothers, born in to a very proud pathan family. She got married when she was studying in grade 10. Her husband already had a master’s degree. Her brothers only wanted the best for their baby sister. Soon, he got a scholarship to study in US and though he promised her family before the wedding that he would never take her away from them, that is exactly what he did. She came to US, not knowing a word of English and her husband considered her an embarrassment, belittled her every chance he got. He never let her go out of the house. When she was growing up in her village, she was the one everyone called to play an instrument something like Thabla during wedding celebrations. Her husband refused to let her play that even for family functions.
She learned English by watching TV.
Then her husband decided that they should migrate to Canada. Unfortunately, he got stumped with the idiotic rule called “Canadian experience” and couldn’t get a job. ( He has a PhD from US). He had to do odd jobs and She had to work as well to put food on the table. She got a job in a Pizza takeaway. She worked there from 4 pm till 12 midnight. Eventually she became the manager of the shop. She still works there.
But this post isn’t about her job. This is about her daughters. She was determined that the education that she was deprived off, she will give her children. This woman who earned slightly above the minimum wage in Canada, set aside 100$/child/month for their education. Some of the money came from child tax, some came from her salary. But every month, she would keep aside100$ for each child.
Her second daughter graduated this year with two degrees and got a very good job.
Years ago, someone from Malaysia left a comment on my blog saying something like, ” how can ordinary people like me migrate when we have no family outside Malaysia to support us”
I always believed that there is only person that stands in front of you and block your path that leads you to your dreams and ambitions. That is you.
Both her older daughters have now graduated and are well employed. Neither of them had to take a student loan. ( The money their mother saved as well as scholarships helped pay for their tuition fees).
PS: there is one more reason I am eternally grateful for having a friend like her. During one of our conversation, I had mentioned how much my son loves Pizza. I was struggling financially then and buying pizza was not something I could afford. I often baked pizza for my son. but it was never the same as store bought Pizza. Many evenings, if there was a pizza order cancellation where they had already made the pizza and the customer called in to cancel, she would save those pizzas for my son and bring it to my home after work. I am sure after working for 8 hours and driving back home in the cold and wet rain/snow, the last thing you would want to do is to drive to your friend’s house and deliver pizza because her son loved pizza. I can still remember the happiness on my son’s face when he woke up to find pizza on the table the next morning.
I am lucky to have great friends.