Daughters of nanny in a coma get temporary residency

Daughters of nanny in a coma get temporary residency

By Dyan Ruiz

Gerente with daughters Lean and Saniel

The daughters of Maricon Gerente, the live-in caregiver who was granted permanent residency while she was confined in an Oakville hospital in a vegetative state, have been granted temporary resident status.

Lean, 14, and Saniel, 11, the daughters of Ma Concepcion Ala Gerente, also known as Maricon, have been granted temporary residency along with the girls’ aunt Aileen Bazon Tan. This is according to the Gerente’s former employer and friend, Jodie Gilbert.

“They have now gone back to the Philippines, but before they left they were granted their temporary residency. So that both the girls and the aunt were given temporary residency for six months, the aunt with a work permit and both the girls with study permits,” said Gilbert in an interview with The Philippine Reporter.

Gerente has been unconscious since an operation to remove a brain tumor in November 2012. According to a Toronto Star report, immigration officers granted Gerente permanent residency while she lay in a vegetative state in a hospital bed in Oakville on April 23, 2013.

Gerente immigrated to Canada through the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP), which requires the worker to complete 24 months of full-time work before he or she can apply to be a permanent resident in Canada. They would then also qualify to sponsor the immigration of family members abroad, such as spouse and children, who are not allowed to arrive with the worker.

Until recently, the fate of the Lean and Saniel’s immigration to Canada was in limbo given the tragic circumstances.

“In a typical situation the parent and dependents are granted permanent residence at the same time,” said the immigration lawyer for the daughters, Guidy Mamann, in an interview with The Philippine Reporter on May 2, 2013. “Now in this particular situation, the government was gracious enough to grant the mother the permanent status, but withheld with respect to the children.”

“I understand from my discussions with CIC [Citizenship and Immigration Canada] officials that they are looking to ensure that the children have someone that can look after them while they’re in Canada. We’re attempting to work out the details of those arrangements,” he said.

It now appears that Mamann and the CIC were able to work things out.

The girls “will hopefully return in September to start school and the aunt to start work,” said Gilbert. “From there they would have to reapply for an extension of their temporary residency, then will apply for permanent residency.”

Gilbert and Gerente have become close over the years since Gerente came to Canada as a nanny in the LCP for the Gilberts’ two children. When interviewed by The Philippine Reporter earlier this month, Gilbert became very upset and referred to the fundraising letter she wrote about Gerente called “A Mother’s Story” when asked about their relationship.

In the letter, Gilbert said that Gerente “immediately became like a member of their family,” when she moved to their home in Oakville, while Gerente kept close ties with the daughters she had to leave behind in the Philippines.

“She spoke with her girls every morning and every night (via Internet), watching them grow, praising them for good grades, doing homework with them, disciplining them when necessary and raising them from afar, and as always sending every penny she had back home to ensure that they were well taken care of,” Gilbert said in the letter.

Gerente returned home to the Philippines for a month every year since arriving to visit her children and it was her dream to live with them in Canada. Gerente eventually moved out of the Gilbert household to pursue a new career as a Personal Support Worker (PSW) as she waited for her permanent residency papers to go through.

Tragically, Gerente’s dream of building a life with her children in Canada can no longer be realized. In October 2012, she suffered from severe headaches and doctors then discovered that she had bleeding in the brain and a brain tumor. Since an operation in November 2012 to remove the tumor, she has remained in a vegetative state.

“She’s stable, but the doctors are saying that there’s no brain activity,” Gilbert said in an interview.

GERENTE in the hospital.                                             (Photos courtesy of Jodie Gilbert)

Gilbert began a fundraising campaign to bring the daughters to Canada so they may visit their dying mother. Aeroplan Miles donations were accepted to fly the children here from the Philippines. A trust was set up so that donations could be made to support the daughters as Gerente was no longer able to support them.

Saniel and Lean were able to come to Canada last month along with their aunt, who is Gerente’s cousin.

A medication given to Gerente is keeping her alive. “The initial thought was that when the girls came here, they would assess the situation and then they would stop active care and let her pass away. However, since being here, I think that they’re struggling with taking her life, obviously, from a religious standpoint,” Gilbert said.

“So they’re going to leave it the way she is now and if something extraordinary happens like a heart attack or a stroke, then they wouldn’t revive her. That’s God’s will and He’s taking them, as opposed to them actually making the decision to stop,” she said, “That was a hard decision for them to make.”

Prior to leaving Canada on May 19, 2012, Gerente’s daughters were “dealing with the situation as best as they can,” Gilbert said, going to the hospital everyday to see her.

“The Filipino community has been huge in rallying together and supporting them,” she said. When the daughters first came “they had people come to the airport to welcome them. And for the most part, they’ve given constant support as far as going to hospital, taking them out in the evenings, providing dinner for them and having them meet people in the community, taking them to church, introducing the girls to other kids their age.”

The local Filipino community has also donated funds for the girls and even organized a rotation with the Filipino nurses at the hospital and friends of Gerente, so “Maricon is looked after all the time, which is great,” Gilbert said.

The Gilberts are still accepting donations through e-transfers to help support the girls and donations can be made using the email, maricontrust@icloud.com.

The Aeroplan miles Gilbert raised will be used to fly the children and their aunt back to Canada in the Fall to start the lives their mother wanted more than anything for her daughters. But tragically, Gerente will not be able to join them.