Amongst the really difficult cases we are currently dealing with, it’s nice to reflect on those that are coming out the other side of what was an incredibly tough time for them.
One of our clients who we have worked very closely within the last year, has had her life transformed in the 16 months we have known her.
She gained “Leave to Remain” in the UK for her and her children at the end of last year, and is now in a temporary flat in Colchester. This is their own secure accommodation, and most important to her, she pays all her own bills and is financially and emotionally taking charge of her life fully, for the first time in over a decade.
She recently told us that in years gone by, she resisted taking her children on days out in public on her own, because she was scared of not having a secure immigration status. She was terrified she would be stopped and questioned. She is now planning to do all sorts of things with her children when the world opens up again, that she was never confident enough to do before. Simple things that we do all take for granted, she would make excuses to her children, as to why they couldn’t do them before.
In addition to her new feeling of security, and this huge weight off her shoulders, she has just secured her first choice, for her delightful eldest boy, to attend a great secondary school in September.
They are thrilled as are we for them, and for once any good news is not overshadowed by the stress of “bigger things”.
These days, instead of assisting her with finding emergency (sometimes shared) accommodation for those without recourse to public funds, and moving them and all their worldly belongings regularly from place to place, we are now helping with things like putting up lovely curtains in their own home and helping with forms for school transport, all the while watching her get more and more comfortable with her new found freedoms and all that ‘normal life’ brings.