Episode 6: Why Washington State?

Episode 6: Why Washington State?

Why did God bring me here of all places? God knows what he is doing. I don't believe that He would have allowed me to come here unless it was His plan. The opportunities that I got here, I truly don't believe that I would have gotten had I stayed in Jamaica. I was able to achieve a BSc and an MSc in Accounting, as well as my CPA, and am currently studying for a Certification in Information Systems Auditing. As immigrants we are always trying to get ahead as we are always supporting family back home. I believe I was brought here to be able to do just that. As well as to spread the Jamaican heritage and culture.

Episode 5: It's me again

Explanation for my long absence: Mother's illness and recent death kept me from having the heart to get on and talk about life. But this Podcast is my therapy for getting the strength to live without her. We will be doing more episodes as a tribute to her and her legacy. She must live on through me. We will be promoting more local Jamaicans and immigrants, and will plan on more events in the future.

Episode 4: Real Talk: My battles with Mom's health

This episode is dedicated to those of us who are considered the sandwich generation. That is, we are looking after our elderly parents, and also looking after our kids. I have been looking after my mom for the past year through a series of illness that just seems to get worse and worse. She started out the year with severe weakness, and dehydration, and getting diagnosed as having lactic acidosis. She was finally recovering in May, when she fell down the stairs and broke her right shoulder, and injured her spine. Requiring her to do shoulder replacement surgery and staying in a rehab facility for 1 month, where she was released as she had plateaued and her insurance company would not cover her to stay in a facility anymore, as such, she was sent home with the expectation of homecare being administered immediately, but that was not to be.  It took 2 months for her to get homecare as well as to get a caregiver from the state, as we could not afford one of our own. During that time, I was her sole caregiver. As such, I had to work from home fulltime, even though it was required that I would in my office 3 days per week. Thankfully, I have a very understanding manager who gave me permission to work from home as I had no other choice since Mom could not take care of herself. Since getting a caregiver, it just seems that she has drastically gotten worse. Physical Therapy started after almost 3 months of her being released from the facility, and then stopped as she was too weak to do the exercises. As such, I took over her PT but that didn't do much for her. She gradually got weaker and weaker, and then started having a fever and coughing of which had us call 911 to have her taken to the hospital last month. They discovered that she had pneumonia, and kept her for 4 nights, and released her with a 4-day supply of anti-biotics. She seemed to have recovered, only for almost a week now, showed signs of being sick again. This time she was talking to people that were not there, seeing people who were not present, having cold sweats as if she took a shower, skin cold as ice to the touch, and complaining of feeling cold at the same time.  We rushed her to the hospital via ambulance. This time they said that she has not sign of any infection as all the tests came back normal. We are waiting on the results of her MRI which will show if she had a stroke, a brain bleed, a blood clot, early on set dementia, or Alzheimer's. It is extremely difficult to see the woman that I have known all my life like this. My heart is breaking, I feel helpless and there is nothing that I can do. SO I put my faith and trust in GOD and what I know that HE is ABLE to DO. PLEASE PRAY WITH ME!!!

Episode 3: Our Story (My then fiance and I)

In this episode, I will talk about the story between my then fiance and I and how it is that I ended up in Washington State (not Washington DC, the ONLY Washington that most Jamaicans know and that automatically comes to mind when Washington is mentioned) all the way from my beautiful, sunny Caribbean Island, Jamaica, and all that I knew and loved, to a place that was totally foreign to me with no friends nor relatives.

Episode 2: My beginnings

This episode is about my beginnings - my birth, my family, my upbringing, how I met the man who was the reason why i ended up in Washington state.