In Our Words Canadians Reading Together

Betsy talked everything over with her boss at work. She was not able to go back. She had no one to watch over the kids if she went back to work. Her boss said the job would be there if she ever decided to come back. She was working for Regal’s Greetings and Gifts, making $10.43 an hour.

Her mother, who lived in Digby, Nova Scotia, was sick with health problems, while also bringing up the three oldest brother and sisters of the younger three that Betsy was raising. In October of 1991, Betsy and the four kids moved back to Digby, NS. She moved into a small three-bedroom apartment, was so small that she could not set up her bedroom suite in her room. So Betsy had to sleep on the couch. Her rent was $395.00 a month, and hydro was about $300.00 every two months, the check that she was receiving from social assistance was about $700.00 a month plus what she for family allowance. It was very hard to keep a high self-esteem for her, when trying to keep up on bills and everything else. If it weren’t for Betsy’s mother she would never have made it. She had to wait until six months before she got on the Federal Budget.

Betsy put her name in for Low Income Housing and in September of 1992, she got accepted. She had to wait for the guys to paint the whole place before she could move in and they were working on another place at the time. Betsy and a friend of hers got the paint and everything they needed from housing and went ahead and painted the house themselves. It was a nice, spacious place it had a full basement, two bedrooms and a full bath downstairs, two bedrooms, kitchen and living room upstairs. She finally got to set up her bedroom.

In January 1994, Betsy’s mother got worse and passed away. She died of a cardiac arrest. Betsy and her mother were very close; they shared a lot with each other and they were good friends also. That was really a devastating blow to Betsy. About a year after her mother’s death, Betsy’s stepfather could no longer care for the three older kids that they had raised, so they came to live with Betsy. In 1995, Betsy was back on the couch again to sleep, as she had to give up her room for the other kids. Now there were seven children and Betsy living in the four-bedroom house. Betsy was trying her best to keep up with her bills, make sure they always had a good lunch for school and plenty food to eat, clean clothes to wear, decent foot-wear, a warm comfortable house to live in, and lots of love to around for them all.