I spent eleven years of my life as a happy go lucky child with very little to complain. Suddenly at age twelve things were different, I wasn’t carefree anymore. My most important person my Dad passed away.
I with the rest of my family had to move to a place which never felt like home. My mom had difficulty making ends meet. We were scared not knowing what the future holds for us.
Suddenly instead of Dad my eldest brother took over the family affairs. He was inexperienced, young and lacked patience which was crucial for the head of a large family.We moved from our Granpa’s village to Comilla . We were hardly settled in our new home, when our eldest brother decided to get married. No one in the family was prepared.
To make matters worse my older brother tried his hand in business, which was completely out of his league. Within a year he lost all the money Dad left for us.
I was barely fourteen but understood what a difficult road lay before us. My second eldest brother was an accountant,he came to our rescue. Whatever he contributed wasn’t enough to meet the family’s needs. My fourth brother agreed to help out.
We were doing fine but we lost all our enthusiasm in life, we spoke softly, we tried to focus on our studies. We believed education will bail us out of our misery.
Slowly but surely we were moving along hoping the coming days will be brighter.
I completed my high school exam successfully. I studied four years in two different colleges. After completion I went on to do my masters degree followed by an education degree. For me the years were passing ever so slowly, I needed to work to support myself to avoid being a burden to the rest of the family members.
After completing my education I took the first job offered to me. I taught for eleven months. I then moved to the bigger city to try my luck. I got the job I wanted but was unaware there were some strings attached, the position included looking after seventy-five kids ranging in ages from five to twelve.
I found myself waking up at 5 a.m and going to bed at midnight. This took a toll on my health. I could not complain , I decided to bide my time and leave this place at the first available opportunity. It came when I received a scholarship to study in England. The administration put a number of road blocks on my way to freedom. I was able to break those barriers by my firm resolve.
I went to London for a year and, completed the diploma of ,’Teaching English as a Foreign language.”
When I came back there were jobs I could get but there was a catch none of the places had living quarters for teachers. I stayed six months at home, I was waiting to get a place to live in the city where I intended to teach. Luckily I got one but it didn’t last long because it was a girl’s college hostel and some of the students didn’t like us(other women and I)to live in the hostel, because we were not students.
There were five of us we managed to rent an apartment on the fifth floor. There was no elevator in the building, once we came back after work we never went out it was difficult to climb those stairs more than once.
After a few months I was married to a physician who lived in Montreal. I stayed with my husband’s parents in a remote village which was accessible only by boat. Seven months after my marriage I came to Montreal to join my husband.
My husband was not allowed to practice in Montreal because he was not a Canadian citizen. To be eligible to practice he’d have to wait for two more years, this was the condition only In Quebec.
Our destiny moved us to Gander, Newfoundland , fortunately my husband was able to practice there because he was an immigrant. We made Gander our home hoping to move back to Montreal after two years. A year later my husband’s boss who had promised to hand over his practice to my husband died in a highway accident. A year and a half later my husband had a myocardial infarction. After this incident we gave up the idea of moving out of Gander.
I taught In Gander for a while. My husband had health issues particularly with his heart, we decided to move to the capital because the facilities were much better.
My life after age twelve until I completed my education was the worst years of my life. It was better after I finished my education and started working.
Young people face more challenges today than me, ours was different we were not bombarded with technological advance.
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