Bridget Nhau hasn't exactly had an easy life. Whether it's seeking refuge in Canada, juggling multiple jobs at a time, or looking after her 12 year-old son, Tinashe, she's no stranger to hard work.
Her efforts are paying off though, especially when it comes to her lifelong dream of becoming a nurse.
"Every time when I was sick or when I saw a nurse close by, I'd be like 'oh my god, these girls, they look like angels.'"
Nhau explained how she grew up in a village in Zimbabwe, where she used to see nurses wear white uniforms. "I don't know if you know the Florence Nightingale kind of way of dressing, that's how they do it in Zimbabwe," she said.
It inspired her to become an angel herself. Come end of May, she'll have graduated from Aurora College in nursing. All that's left for Nhau before starting work, she explained, was one exam, the National Council Licensure Examination. It's a nationwide exam for licensing nurses in Canada.
By the sounds of it she's still got plenty of work outlined for herself after that too. Nhau added that she wants to work for a year or two, then pursue a masters degree.
What she's particularly interested in studying, she said, is addictions and mental health.
"Especially in the North, there's a lot of addictions, a lot of mental health issues. If I can, I would really love to just equip myself more and be able to help as much as I can."
Where this drive to help others comes from? Nhau isn't too sure, she said. Though by the sounds of it, she was always aware of the need for health-care providers in the world.
"The village that I grew up in, the clinic that is close by is 14 kilometres away. There's no clinics there. And people die with things that are so simple, things like headaches can kill you in my country. Things like childbirth can kill you. Because there's no help or there's no healthcare anywhere close by."
It's a gap Nhau wants to fill, she said. She added that one day she might even return home to open up her own clinic after getting her education in Canada.
And although she laughed about how it looks like she will remain in Yellowknife for awhile, it's a reality that almost never happened. Nhau explained she applied for refugee status in Canada but was denied. She appealed the decision three times after that and Canada still denied her, she said.
Nhau said she had to flee to Canada, landing first in Ontario, because her son's life was being threatened. Still, it wouldn't be enough, Nhau explained.
"The Canadian government was telling me that they understand my situation. But the issues they were saying was, 'your situation could have been sorted back in South Africa. So you should go back to South Africa. And also because your son is South African, you should try to get him help there.'"
It cost her about $50,000 to pay for her lawyers, Nhau said, but by the time she had signed her deportation papers, COVID had hit. It stalled her deportation, and in the meantime, she spent whatever time she thought she might have left in Canada working at a care facility for the elderly, she said.
Safe to say, as COVID stretched on, that sector took a hit. And as Nhau explained, suddenly she became much more valuable.
"Then the government said, ‘oh, everybody that is working in this health care section, actually working with vulnerable people, and everybody that does not have papers, please apply for permanent residence,'" Nhau said, laughing.
When Nhau applied for permanent residency during the pandemic she was approved in a week's time, she said. She cried when she saw her approval, saying she was in disbelief.
When it comes to making the move up north, the answer is simple: the schooling here was cheaper, Nhau said.
Despite her struggles, Nhau isn't shaken by her circumstances. "I think if you go through a lot, you realize that in the end, everything will be OK. If it's not, if it's still giving you headaches, if you're still stressed, if it's still giving you challenges, it’s not the end."
And as for her son, Tinashe, Nhau said her boy is excited for her to become a nurse.
"He always feels like because the mom is a nurse he can do anything, his mommy's a superhero."