Bringing It Home by Tilda Shalof

Author:Tilda Shalof [Shalof, Tilda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-7710-8001-2
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
Published: 2014-04-29T04:00:00+00:00

MOTHER OF MOTHERS

“IT’S YOUR CHOICE. La langue de votre choix,” it says on the airport welcome sign.

It’s true. C’est vrai.

I’ve quickly discovered you can greet anyone here with either “hello” or “bonjour.” And while Quebec is French and the rest of Canada is English, from what I can tell, New Brunswick is truly bilingual. Anyone here takes your lead and carries on in either language. And right off the plane, the people here are warm and welcoming.

So, where am I now? Moncton, New Brunswick, population 110,000. What a blast this is, touring the country on VON’s tab. But I’m here on business, I remind myself, to meet teen moms and their babies. Nurse Educator Maria DesRoches has arranged a meeting in the office with Chantal, the mother of six-year-old Mimi, who sits quietly beside her on a couch, ping-ponging between colouring with crayons and playing a video game on her mother’s phone. Chantal’s wavy chestnut hair, parted down the centre, is like a curtain drawn to either side to reveal her dark eyes and gentle face – a look mirrored in a smaller replica by her daughter.

Mimi was a newborn and Chantal only seventeen when she was miserably married to a World of Warcraft–gamer husband for whom the virtual world was better than the real one.

“I tried to get into it, too,” Chantal recalls, “I even created my own avatar, but he pushed me away. Financially, it was tough. He sold my engagement ring. He didn’t work, but at seven exactly, supper had to be on the table. Then he’d be on the computer until two or three in the morning. He didn’t even care about the baby’s first kick. He never showed interest in her.”

Mimi interrupts her mom politely to ask for a snack and squeals with delight at what she finds in Mom’s purse. “Les poisson d’or! Les poisson d’or!” Noticing me, she translates for my benefit, “Goldfish!” She shows me a picture of her dog on the phone. “Il s’appelle Pitou and he ran into moi and il fait du boo boo.” She points to a sore knee. “Sometimes I manqué just in time.”

Chantal picks up her story. “Fortunately, I found Rock & Talk. It’s a support group for teen moms. It’s where I met Maria.” Chantal smiles at Maria gratefully. “We talked about making a budget, getting back in shape, dealing with stress, nutrition, and our relationships. My mom told me my life was over by having a baby and dropping out of high school. She said she wouldn’t support me if I was going to throw my life away. Maria became my second mom during that time. It was a bad time.” Chantal covers her face and Mimi jumps up from the couch to put her arm around her. Chantal wipes her eyes and continues. “Meeting other girls with similar problems helped me, but it was a terrible time. I was not in a good place. One day this other girl was speaking about her

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.