Quebec | Lessons from my daughter

If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile you must have read or picked-up on the fact the I am from Québec. People outside of Canada call us French Canadian. People from Canada call us Quebeckers. We call ourselves Québécois.

Emily was also born in Québec.

It’s really cute when she says “I’m French you know”… She says it in English… 😊

Almost 10 years ago, my mom sold the house where I grew up and moved closer to her family.

When Emily was younger, we would go home (my home) once or twice a year.

Over the last 10 years, Emily made it to the Gaspé coast maybe twice…

I miss it and I know my mom misses it too. It’s difficult to go back home when there is no longer a home there. We only go home for funerals and last November, after the latest funeral, I told mom we had to make a trip just for fun.

So this past August, we did it!

I packed suitcases for Emily and I and left home super early one morning. Mom hopped on the bus around the same time and we all met 5 hours later in Carleton.

We ate breakfast and went up the Mont St-Joseph (altitude of 555m). We drove up and I will forever be in aw of the people walking, running and biking up there!

After that we continued the drive to my hometown of Paspébiac.

We spent the week driving around the south part of the Gaspé coast, walking through towns & hiking trails and speaking French.

For the first time in Emily’s life, she went to bed willingly at night. Exhausted physically from the walking around and exhausted mentally from the French speaking.

I knew she understood French. I knew she could kinda speak it but I had no idea how good she was. She speaks mostly English at home and knows we understand English but in Paspébiac or Percé… I made her speak French! She was awesome.

Here are some pictures of our week!

It was awesome to play tourists at home!

I ate fresh crab every single time I could.

If you are ever considering traveling that way, let me know, I know all the best spots!

Within a year of Emily being diagnosed, we are spending most our free time at the hospital…

We work weekends and take days off during the week in order to go to the hospital….

We break our vacations into tiny pieces in order to go to the hospital….

A trip to the hospital requires a full day. We live a couple of hours away, it takes longer when we factor in traffic so sometimes we actually need to get to Montreal the night before due to early appointments.

So, once a month, we take a day off to drive to Montreal to meet with our physiotherapist and occupational therapist to learn how to play/work with Emily. On the way home we buy whatever supplies we need to practice what the PT and OT are telling us we need to do.

Both therapist are amazing and our OT believes I am the greatest mom….. 🙂 I liked her even more for saying that! She is convinced I should quite my job, go back to school and become an OT….. WHAT??? I work in accounting in the hospitality industry and I LOVE it!!!!

I had to explain to our OT on multiple occasion that the only kid that is allowed, to sneeze, vomit, pee, cough or splatter any other type of liquids on me is Emily!!! Slowly, she gets it, she stops asking me to go back to school….. but than she asks me to go to University!!! As a public speaker!!!! WHAT???

Me! A public speaker at McGill University!!!

Me! Little French me with limited English at the time!

Me, scared to speak in front of a crowd….

Me?!?!?

I had no idea what to say to that…. The university needed guest speakers and they figured out that a parent who was really involved in their child’s treatment would be great… ok, I can see why that sounded like a good idea!

But me???

Now, I am scared! I know I can’t do that!!!! But if did do it…. if I managed to touch 1 student…. it could have an impact on so many people…. so many patients……

If telling our story could make one student realize that my daughter is not a syndrome, that she is a little girl and should be treated as such! If telling our story could help other kids be treated as kids, other adults be treated as human being and not as a syndrome, not as a disability or as someone who had a tremendous accident…..

I could make a difference!

Could I do that? Wow!!!! I was going to do that. I only had 1 request, I needed Emily there with me…. I figured the students would be looking at her not at me… 🙂 The university was quick to reply that Emily should be there with me.

So I did it, I agreed to be a guest speaker at McGill University!

Not only did I go that year, but I went the following 2 years! On 3 occasions Emily and I were invited to McGill University to speak to a group of occupational therapists in the making. From one year to the other the teachers would tell the students about the progress they were seeing in Emily. First year, she sat in her stroller, second year, she had a walker, third year she was walking around, looking at the students and eventually settling on a desk in the first row where someone gave her a piece of paper and some highlighters…. I was delighted to see her work the crowd!!!

From year to year, I got better at it! My English was improving and I knew I was making a difference.

When we left Quebec to move to New Brunswick, the teachers at the University were sad to see us go! From time to time I wonder if they still have parents going to the University to talk to the students, I hope they do! I wonder if one of those students remembers Emily and I coming to visit…. I hope at least one students per year remembers us and has become a great OT with amazing human skills allowing him or her to see a little kid or an adult as such and not as a case or a syndrome!

I hope Emily and I made a difference!

To this day, I believe I wouldn’t have done this if it wasn’t for Emily pushing me to be a better person even before she could speak.

Emily took me from “I can’t speak in front of a University class in my mother tongue there is no way I would do it in English……. ” to ” Emily is not giving up on achieving milestones, who am I to give up on achieving milestone?”

We are never too old to learn!
Thank you Emily for helping me grow!!!

How are your kids pushing you to be better? Would you recognize them pushing you to grow?