Wrote On October 31st 2015

My wonderful mother, Doris Dominato is 59 years old. Over her lifetime, she has done many things. At 19 she opened her (first) hair salon. At 21 she bought her first home. At 25 she had her first child (alone). Over the years, she had her second child (me, obviously), provided many jobs for other people in her salons, paid taxes, received no maternity benefits twice, travelled, bought another house, bought vehicles, took care of her elderly parents, raised children, raised pets, paid many vet bills, got married, got separated, developed carpal tunnel syndrome in her hands (hair dresser), developed extremely bad knees (cement floors because hairdresser), had grandchildren, had surgery on her hands, had surgery on her knee (soon to be knees), moved to Alberta to be closer to her kids, and much more. Over the course of these years different things and different situations occurred. One of which was her knees, they got so bad from working hard for a living that she couldn't work anymore and this led to not only surgery but also to a government building in Lethbridge. She went there for help, because as much as we would love to be able to 100% support her, we can't afford it (trust me, we tried - that's 3 adults, 1 baby, 2 dogs and 1 cat on ONE INCOME). She went there and got put on a list to get an apartment in Lethbridge from government assistance and also for assistance with money. After a few months an apartment opened up for her and she moved in, the rent is covered by the government. She also got approved for $480.00CAD a month. With that $480.00 a month she has to pay the following: phone bill, car insurance, gas, groceries, banking fees, Internet, and parking at her apartment (meters, at an government assisted living building). As well as sometimes the dollars have to be stretched further to include things like cleaning supplies, toiletries, clothing, shoes, any gifts she can try to do for her grandchildren's birthdays/Christmas (because let's face it, that's what grandma's do) and more. This is my mom's life. She spends her time taking care of her grandsons in Lethbridge, driving down to Calgary to visit me, my husband and my daughter, knitting, desperately wishing she could afford to adopt a cat, playing free games on her iphone (an old one of mine that I gave to her), watching crime shows and talking to her far away family on the phone. She doesn't do drugs, she doesn't even drink alcohol. Last weekend when she was here in Calgary visiting, she was so excited to tell me about this picture she saw on Facebook. It was a purse with a caption encouraging people to fill up an old bag with things like shampoo, tooth brushes, soap, etc and give it to a homeless woman they see on the street. After ALL of the stuff she goes through, she is still trying to figure out a way to give to people that are LESS fortunate than her. I literally could not be more proud of her. The point of this post is to show you what welfare (government assistance) is. So the next time you see a meme on the internet degrading people on welfare and how much they have, I hope you think of my mom. I hope you are as disgusted with the ignorance of whoever has shared/posted it as I am when they pop up on my timeline at 11:30PM and send me into a public fit of fury.