Have you ever wondered how and why Noreen and I get invited to the Farm mansion last time? Did you ever ask yourself who came and picked us up, driving that snobbish Jaguar? Who owns the farm land? Who owns the mansion?
Laura is another lady I have come to know through Noreen. She is a Caregiver too. Noreen and Laura used to work and were neighbours in the same area before Noreen gets ditched. Well actually, Laura gets ditched first.
Laura came to Canada about six months earlier than me, seven months earlier than Noreen. For a while, I thought I have already heard of the many different stories related to Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs.) Not until I met Laura.
She was widowed at a very young age. Her rock star husband died very young with some disease associated to smoking (and pot too, I’d guess). They were blessed with two children – both were left in Laura’s hands to raise, to support and to nurture. At first she thought, being the tough lady that she is, she will certainly get by. However, just a year after or so, she needed to find some more means to feed her growing kids. The opportunity to work in Beirut, Lebanon came knocking on her door just in time when Laura herself is up and about to knock on heaven’s door. Answered prayer it sure was! So she was off to Middle East. After not so very long, the war has begun. Laura told me she was frightened to death and wished she was home with her children. Oh, I was never in a war zone before, but I know I don’t have to be somewhere there to understand how terrifying and horrible it could possibly be.
Laura lasted for two years, not because she had fun with the blasting and normal day explosions, but because she needed to stay.
After two years, she seeks employment and found one in Taiwan – with a better pay and way much farther from the bombs, but illegally. She changed her name, she altered her identity, in her haste to earn big and fast so that she may be with her children sooner rather than later. She worked in a home care, taking care of course, of the senior fellows up somewhere around the hilly parts of Taiwan. One morning, a young man whom Laura mistook for a grandson of some grandparents living in the Home, approached and asked her if she were “Rebecca” – the name she changed hers into. She casually and happily confirmed that she indeed is Rebecca and there she was, trapped like a mouse, cornered and caught! She was detained for days, in a place so dark she actually lost her sense of time. When finally, the same foreign police who caught her came to release her, she found a renewed freedom. She went home to her children in the Philippines right away.
Nevertheless, the reality that her children are indeed growing and are therefore in need of so much more, took a bite on her. She ached all too well but she has no choice. Sometime over those years, Laura gave it another shot and landed another employment overseas. This time, she became a Domestic Helper in Hong Kong. As if to compensate the countless years of frustrations, Laura found a very pleasant family in Hong Kong were she was employed for 11 years! The family was even instrumental for her coming to Canada. But wait, just as she thought she almost hit the jackpot, something happened. A few weeks before leaving for Canada, her then 25 year-old daughter acquired a disease known to be “Lupus” – a condition where the autoimmune system works against the body itself, eating up the healthy cells. Laura however, simply couldn’t drop the chance to work in Canada. So she went on. After a few months here though, her daughter’s condition worsened. Laura the mother, has had to go home.
It was yet another battle back home in the Philippines. No bombs, no missiles, no foreign police too, but equally terrifying. Being a mother myself, the thought of having a sight of your child, very ill and almost dying, I can imagine, would kill you to pieces just the same. Laura’s daughter was saved through God’s grace and the many people who extended support and care. Laura then came back to Canada to go back to work – not necessarily to earn but to pay back the piles of debt. After a few months, she was terminated by some heartless people who gave her very unjust reasons. How so very cruel.
After her termination, Laura hopped around the many prospective employers but with no luck. She was tossed around and never ended really well with any of them. She tried so hard and I feel for her so bad whenever she is turned down. I worry so much that she might not be able to send home money for her daughter’s medication which is necessary to maintain. I worry that she might not have that much strength to sustain any longer. All the while however, I see fun and glee in this person. However time and fate treats her, she is unquestionably joyful – a beautiful human being; a beautiful gift.
The latest employment she got is in the Farm Mansion. Yes sir, that is how and why Noreen was invited over, and that is how, I, was able to tag along.
Mr. Ferguson himself came and picked us up – yes, he drives a Jaguar; Mr. Ferguson owns the mill; the farm mansion; the red barn; the six-car garage; the Hereford cows; the unending acreage. Mr. Ferguson is the new widow. His wife died of cancer very recently. He needs a companion right now and though it seems rather icky and a wee bit too early to play cupid, looking at Mr. Ferguson’s eyes the way he looks at Laura, I guess she, will soon be the newest Cinderella.
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