During our interview, Hannah shared many fond memories of her father who helped her regularly and spent precious time with her as a child. She said her father was unique because he encouraged her to do well in school just as much as he encouraged her brothers. She recalled that he walked her to school the first day she attended at the age of six. He also taught her to write her name, which she proudly did on her first day of school. He taught her to add and subtract, and then created tests to help her practice these skills. Hannah described how her father was also involved in her education in a less direct but equally influential way. "I learned from my father," she said. "Always he was reading, to show us how to read, [and] to encourage us to read. So I always became one like that. I like reading."

Hannah not only learned reading, writing and math skills from her father but she also learned a way to model reading behaviours and methods to encourage her own children's reading habits. As a single mother, she has sole responsibility for the education of her children and it is a parenting task that she has embraced. "I always encourage them. I take them [to the] library and stuff like that. We go to the library every Saturday. In spare time, when they finish their homework, we all read because I always like to show them I am reading something."

Hannah described in detail the "quiet time" routine she has established with her three children.

We open the book. Quiet time. My little son we colour or something like that. Always we have quiet time for reading—everybody. At night, I read a story for them before bedtime. My son, four years old, he has some books, Barney or something like that. Every night when he go[es] to bed, he takes his books and then I read for him, but the others, they read by themselves.

Hannah left Somalia immediately after high school and lived in Italy with a friend of her family's who helped her find a job as a caregiver with an Italian family. This was Hannah's only paid work experience. She considered returning to school once her oldest child was old enough to attend daycare. She initially attempted to register in an ESL class, thinking this was the only way available to continue her education. The ESL assessors then referred her to the employment preparation program based on the length of time she had been in Canada, her high oral language abilities, and her desire to find part–time work.