Michele Gyselinck

 Why don't you get a service dog for your child with the disability?  There are service dogs for practically every disability now, and it would free you to give more time to your other kids.

  That's nice, but what about people with disabilities who have professional training? Although I've pretty much given up looking for a job, let alone a career, I have two B.A.s and the second one was in English Studies with a Major in Professional Writing in English.  Surely, not all the people with disabilities you work with have Down's Syndrome or are intellectually deficient?

 In my family, mother and siblings and my sister's family, traditions have changed over time.  When we were kids, my maternal grandparents would come over on Christmas Eve, and after supper my grandmother would give us our baths while my parents hastily got the presents under the tree and pretended that Santa had dropped them off and was on his way to the next place on his list.  Back then, I was not a Christian, and neither of my siblings became believers then or since.

Later on, we did things differently.  But what changed our traditions drastically was my sister living with her partner 20-odd years ago.  From then on she went to celebrate Christmas with her in-laws on Christmas Eve, and with us on Christmas Day.  Fortunately, we all live in the same city, so it doesn't pose major logistical problems to see both sides of the family on following days.  We often also celebrate New Year's Eve together with my sister's in-laws.  My sister's relationship with her partner is stable, and although they are not officially married they consider themselves to be.  

My mom attends mass at her church on Christmas Day, and I attend the Christmas Day service at the Montreal CRC.  Then the two of us have lunch together at my mom's place, and in the afternoon we usually prepare whatever food we have committed ourselves to bring to my sister's place get all the stuff together and take it to her house for supper.  Since my mom and I are the only ones who are practicing Christians, the events from then on are non-religious.

 Since then the cost of a monthly pass for public transit has increased to $88,50.  And my mom is 94.

I can relate to their embarrassment.  When I read an article in which the son of Liberty University's founder said that Trump was their dream president, I decided I would not refer to myself as an evangelical Christian anymore because people like him were giving the word a bad name.  I am not the only one to feel this way either.

Thanks Heather.  And may God bless your work with Friendship Ministries.  Hope to see you again.

I'm NOT rejecting anything.  Actually, I would agree that people tend to let their emotions run away with them when it comes to matters of justice, especially when it comes to immigration--since let's not kid ourselves--immigration is a big-ticket issue these days both in the States and Canada as people of Haitian origin have been streaming across our border, as they fear deportation back to Haiti following your president's order that the protection offered by POTUS 44 after the earthquake of 2010 be rescinded as of Jan.2018.  The stream of July has dwindled down to a creek, but we're going to be processing cases for months if not years to come here in Québec, and all of them are getting basic welfare and free medical care until they can get a workers's permit and be allowed to look for work.  Do they get that in the States?

 I was born in Québec as the eldest daughter of a Belgian immigrant and a Québécois mother in the 1950s, and when I started attending public school in French, most of my classmates and even the teachers had NEVER heard or seen a name like Gyselinck in their lives before.  In fact, I was only schooled in the French sector because my mother was a French Canadian of Roman Catholic confession.  Most children of immigrants went to schools of the  local Protestant school boards, and so since I was different and vulnerable the other kids started to pick on me and bully me.  I only found acceptance once my parents moved me to an English high school so I'd learn English since the teaching of English in Québécois schools was AND IS pathetic.  My experience as a first generation child of immigrant parents was that the nation to which I was born was and remains very ethnocentric.  Even now most francophones in Québec--especially those who trace their ancestry to French ancestors who immigrated in the 17th and 18th centuries--struggle to include and accept immigrants who look different and have different religions like Islam.