Channi Gonzales received her Dogwood Diploma last June after deal with sons
But, when the single mother of two boys, aged 11 and 14, sat them down to give them a pep talk about the importance of school, her youngest son said something that made her take a second look at her own life.
Gonzales, who was born in Clearwater, and grew up in Ladysmith, explained she dropped out of high school at the age of 14. Then one day she returned home to find the house in shambles and her parents and younger brother gone. She was declared abandoned, and put under the care of the Ministry of Children and Family Development. She moved from foster home to foster home, as her extended family was unable to take her in, and was put into the Youth Independent Living Program.
Then she travelled to San Diego, where her future husband was living, but found herself in an abusive and controlling relationship. Gonzales said, he had control over her passport, and made her help him steal people’s mail and cars. After getting caught cashing cheques under somebody else’s name, Gonzales found herself with a 93-day jail term.
When she graduated, her sons, who are now 13 and 17 years old, told her how very proud they were of her, and her oldest even cried, she said.
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