Nadine gathers her family close

Tragic circumstances brought Nadine closer to her grandchildren.

Fleeing Cameroon in 2004, she was separated from her three children, who remained in Africa.

“I was in a marriage I couldn’t survive. That’s why I left,” Nadine said.

She made the trip back to Cameroon only in 2012, when her daughter died in childbirth, losing the baby and leaving Nadine with five orphaned grandchildren.

At almost 60 years old, Nadine began the paperwork necessary to legally adopt the grandchildren.

The process took years, since her daughter’s death in 2012 until January 2016, when four of the five children arrived in Montreal.

“It’s the adoption — the process — is long,” she said. “It’s immigration that decides, it’s not me who decides.”

The eldest of the grandchildren was 18 when the adoption process began, and was ineligible to come to Canada. “She stayed in Cameroon, but I take care of her in Africa,” Nadine said. The second eldest recently turned 19, the youngest is 9.

“Bringing a child here, their life is changed. Everything, friends, transport, everything,” Nadine said.

Nadine and her grandchildren are one of the families receiving a $125 cheque from the Gazette Christmas Fund this year. The money helps raise spirits during the holidays for people in need.

Nadine said she will use the money to buy food, including fruits and vegetables like plantain and cassava, for Christmas and New Year’s Day. “Turkey costs too much, so during the holidays we want to buy turkey and fish,” she said.

In the past, the grandmother worked on call in a hospital, watching and accompanying patients. She stopped working when the children arrived and she struggled to balance work and caring for them.

“I was by myself, I had a bit of money, without many things. Now there are lot of things. There is a lot of work to do.”

HOW TO HELP: Donate online: www.christmasfund.com. Phone us: 514-987-2400, Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mail or drop off donations to The Gazette Christmas Fund, 1010 Ste-Catherine St. W., Suite 200, Montreal H3B 5L1.