It was hard for her to move to Quebec from Nicaragua as a child, but she has a new appreciation for the sacrifices her mother made.
It wasn’t easy moving to Montreal from Nicaragua 22 years ago, Lena says.
Her mother moved to Quebec to work for the government when Lena was a baby, and Lena joined her when she was seven years old.
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“It was difficult to come here,” Lena said. “I didn’t want to come, but I know my mom was trying to do what was best.”
When Lena arrived in Montreal, her mother had another child with her new husband.
“I always felt like my mother was on one side,” Lena says. “If I was the mother, I would have been doing everything I could to help my daughter integrate with everything going on. But that didn’t happen.”
Lena, 29, has one daughter and another is coming in December. She says that while she’s disappointed in her mother for not helping her with the transition, she can sympathize.
“I’m a mom now, so I can understand the sacrifices she made for me,” she said. “I understand what it means to be a mom. It probably wasn’t easy for my mom to come to Quebec, but she came for work and for a better life for us all.”
Lena moved out at 16 because of the strained family relationships. She wanted to go to college but worked instead.
“I was happy doing it, but now I want to progress in my life,” Lena said.
After her maternity leave, Lena hopes to go back to school and work.
“I want to study, I want to buy a house, I want to buy a car, I’m in a country with many opportunities,” Lena said. “Now that I’m a mom, I try to understand what I didn’t understand back then. When you have kids, you forget the world, and all that matters is your family. I want them to have a good life and I want to be good for them.”
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