I gripped my phone, trying to listen, while my mind rushed ahead to everything I would not be able to do. I would grieve from here, my new home in Edmonton — an ocean and nearly a day of travel away from Nigeria. This kind of grief didn’t come with a dish dropped off at my door or arms wrapped tightly around me. It meant finding money I didn’t have, time off I couldn’t easily take and rearranging a life I had worked so hard to build in Canada. It felt like choosing between the life I was building and the people I had left behind.

Source: CBC News March 22, 2026 18:33 UTC