When I was in my last year of university, my professor asked me to envision my future. I said I wanted to die happily. My professor laughed, but I remain committed to that statement.

What I meant to say was that I want to help people live happy life. You can never know when your last day on earth arrives. But it arrives. You want to leave here happy. This feeling seems normal, not funny, just an expected outcome. Some people live their lives doing ordinary things, following in their parents’ footsteps, so to speak.

When opportunity knocks, it might bring an extraordinary opportunity. For me, the knock was loud. I could not wait anymore, and no one would stop me from realizing my dream — to become a nurse in Canada.

There is the expectation that children care for their aging parents. It’s easy when many generations live under one roof. Someone is available to provide care, companionship, and attention at any hour. Because they lived at home, seniors might have felt independent. What’s practical, though, may not blend well in a different culture. Let’s consider care from two points of view, familial and institutional. In its simplest sense, at-home care promotes consistent, ongoing, and adjusted care throughout life’s stages. Hospital care is regulated, urgent, and necessitated when the body needs treatment.

Everyone has his or her limits, and I had determined mine. No more would I permit a capable elder to give up their independence. I had seen this loss in my family and among the patients, I cared for.

Canada gave me three challenges: