ST. PAUL – She held her children - a three-year-old son and a newborn daughter. She memorized their features as her daughter’s tiny fingers curled around hers, eyes flickering with curiosity.
Then, she bid them farewell and flew back to Kuwait.
It was 1995. She would not hold her children again for another year.
Thelma and her husband, Jesus Casey Enriquez, had been working in Kuwait for three years in 1995, when the couple's second child was born. Thelma worked at a hospital near the Iraqi border, while her husband worked elsewhere.
The couple grew up in Basilan, where the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao was established in 2019. They moved to work in Kuwait as nurses to build a better future, as opportunities in their home were scarce.
Thelma watched her children grow up through photographs and through rare opportunities talking to them over the phone.
There were no video calls back then. Just expensive phone calls that crackled with static, distant voices on the other end.
“It was really challenging.”
To cope, she poured herself into her work. She baked cakes for extra income. She did anything to keep herself occupied, otherwise, it would be too painful.
But she admits there was no amount of work to replace the moments she lost. Her son’s first steps. Her daughter’s first words. Memories she would never have.
“We were missing their milestones,” she says. “All the firsts.”
“You wanted to be there for them . . . but we were just thinking that we were doing this for their future,” adds Thelma. Being away from their family is the sacrifice many Filipino mothers had to make to build futures for their children, she says.
For seven years, that became the norm for the couple, and only occasionally being able to come home to see their children.
Seven years passed since she had her first child, and five birthdays from her second, when she finally decided to go back home in 1999. Her husband would remain for nearly two more years in Kuwait.
The kids would start school soon, “So I wanted to be there for guidance.”
“I tried to catch up with time,” she says. Sometimes, she had to become overprotective with her children just to cope with lost time.
Kidnappings
Yet, even as she tried to rebuild what was lost, Basilan was changing. News of kidnappings spread, and whispers of ransom and disappearances echoed about.
Thelma believes the people responsible must have thought that people were rich just because they worked abroad. She says even tourists were reportedly abducted.
At the time, there was turmoil in Basilan. Some high-profile incidents included the Dol Pamas kidnappings in May 2001, where members of the jihadist terrorist group, Abu Sayyaf, abducted foreign nationals – tourists.
Thelma says she couldn’t risk it.
“So, that’s one of the reasons why I had to move my kids to Bulacan, just to get off Basilan,” she says. Bulacan is located in the Luzon region of the Philippines, about an hour away from the country’s capital, Manila. “We wanted to keep our family safe.”
An unlikely opportunity
It was in Manila where she found the opportunity she had been looking for.
“I saw an ad in the paper that Manitoba was offering [nursing] licensure exams for the Philippines,” she says. People would become provincial nominees in Manitoba if they passed the exam.
“I took my chances,” she says - and passed the exam.
While the process of obtaining her provincial nominee was ongoing, another opportunity came about. Alberta also needed nurses.
Thelma told Immigration Canada that she had family members in Red Deer, where her aunt lives. Alongside other Filipinos in similar situation, “Immigration considered us to go to Alberta instead, and that they will process our papers as Independent Immigrants.”
“We were just so lucky,” she says, explaining not everyone is successful in becoming an Independent Immigrant. It’s a status that gives privileges including, but not limited to, having a permanent resident status.
“But we had to ensure we had employers,” adds Thelma.
Thankfully, she says she was hired by Steve Krim to work as a Licensed Practical Nurse for Extendicare in St. Paul, where she also later became a Registered Nurse after passing the licensure exam.
Preparing to go to Canada, her family’s plan was for her to establish a home first in St. Paul before bringing her family over. Her husband was also still in Kuwait.
Fate, however, can be fickle.
Her family’s passports were about to expire, and her family had less than a month to move. All of them had to, including her husband, or they would have to start the process over from scratch.
“We were scrambling,” she says.
But the situation was a blessing in disguise.
“We all finally ended up together in Canada . . . as a whole family. That was the blessing in disguise.”
In April 2002, the Enriquez family officially moved to St. Paul, where they welcomed a new member of their family. They remain in the community today.
Thelma still works at Extendicare. She calls it, “Utang na loob,” or the debt of gratitude. It’s a Filipino concept of showing respect and gratitude to the people who helped you.
Living in Canada
While living in a new place had its own set of challenges, Thelma says that for the most part, the family did not feel isolated.
“The Filipino families here, they are very helpful,” she says.
“Ate Diane Velanueva, who was a nurse in Extendicare at the time,” was like a mother to the family, she says. Ate means sister. “Ate Annie Martin, who is still working in Extendicare right now, helped us with the transition.”
The family had other help, adds Thelma. People helped look after their children when the couple both had to go to work.
“Steve Krim, he was also very helpful and accommodating,” she says. Krim even helped the family look for a place to live when they first arrived in St. Paul.
“He’s just the major person that helped us to be here in Alberta and have a good life,” says Thelma, adding Krim also helped other Filipinos when he worked as an administrator with Extendicare.
Reflecting on her journey, Thelma says she now feels “secured.”
“I’m in a peaceful environment now, compared to where we came from.”
