Mary Gianan, Personal Support Worker, “You are holding them, you are in their bubble.”

Mary Gianan has been extra careful since COVID-19 struck. She has tried to avoid going out other than to work, and when she must, she always wears a mask.
As a personal support worker (PSW) in a long-term care facility, she says she feels it’s important to take the extra precautions.
“You really are with the residents,” as a PSW, she said. “You are holding them, you are in their bubble, so you have to make sure you’re safe.
“I love my job. I see my residents as family.”
Originally from the Philippines, Mary came to Canada to work as a nanny in 2005. She had to leave her family – her husband, four-year-old daughter and one-and-a-half-year-old son – back home in order to start the family’s immigration process.
“I left pretty early in the morning, I tried to sneak out, but my son was awake. He started calling out to me,” Mary recalled of the day she left for Canada.
“I can still hear him to this day. It was heartbreaking to leave,” she said. “But it was a good decision. I gave a good life to my children.”
Mary lived in London when she first immigrated, then moved to Burlington. But when her family was finally able to join her, she and her husband came back to London to raise their kids.
They had some tough times. Shortly after her husband arrived, her family didn’t have enough money for groceries, so they got help from the food bank.
“I was really down at that time,” Mary recalled. But they persevered and now he also works as a PSW – along with their daughter, who is now 20 – and they recently bought their first home.
With all three of them working in health care, life has changed drastically over the past six months. “We stay in our bubble. We get tested (for COVID-19) every two weeks and we are strict about everything. We wear our masks. We try to be very safe.”
Mary, who was a teacher in the Philippines, feels like working in health care – especially with elderly patients – is a vocation.
“It’s fulfilling. You can give them the love they don’t have now,” she said, adding some residents at her facility have no visitors. ”We hold their hands. They love that. You see how they light up from a simple hug. It’s like having 30 grandmothers and grandfathers.”
Working as a health care provider is just one of the ways Mary is giving back to the community that she said has given her and her family so much. She also volunteers with the Filipino Association for London and District, where she reaches out to newcomers who are “frustrated.” She tells them about her own struggles as a new immigrant.
“I tell them to have patience and to hang on, because Canada is a lovely country,” said Mary.