Don’t worry when you get old
– Joan and Jim Robertson
That’s our grandson Everett. Next to him is Zahed. They were looking out a window. Everett was watching to see if his dad was coming.
That’s when we took this photo of the two of them.
Our friend Amy Dreyer is a really good painter. And she painted that.
Everett is now 18 and Zahed is 17.
This painting is in our living room because we’re their Canadian Grandparents.
We met Fazlis in 2007, a few weeks after they arrived.
We had this idea of doing something together, and this was something we could do together. So we thought, well, let’s check it out. And we fell in love with the Fazlis in probably five minutes. The very first day that we met them, they were staying in an apartment in Bowness. Beata met us there.
They knew Russian because they had fled to Russia because of the Taliban. Beata spoke Polish. We’d say something to Beata, and she’d translate it into Polish, and they would listen to it and get the gist of it.
And then they’d say something in Russian, and Beata would pass it on to us.
It’s amazing what you can do with gestures, body language and goodwill. We stayed and had lunch with them.
And the rest is history.
Shukria made lunch for us that day. And boy, is she a good cook!
First meeting and they were already giving back to us.
We helped them with English and navigating Canadian systems.
One thing we’re really impressed with is that they’ve made it. They’re part of a Canadian culture. They’ve got good jobs, they’ve got a house, Abed and Munira have their house, Ferdous and Shabnam have their house. They’re going to move into it. Shukriya and Hanif have their house. They have houses, they have their jobs, and they’re part of Canada, which is wonderful.
When Abed was a kid, he told us, “Don’t worry when you get old; we’ll look after you.”
He’s an Engineering graduate now.
You take them on because you want to help them and empower them so that they can lead their lives.
In our case, they became our family so fast. Just like that!