Especially when in that first year after having a child and you're given maternity leave, you expect to be on leave for those 52 weeks. To be told right away you need to return to work or that you owe that child tax benefit back right away.... There's almost a dirty feeling around it for parents, having to reach out to the government, to EI, and find out what their options are. You feel you're being judged or that you're asking for something you don't deserve. That's the last thing we should be making bereaved parents feel. They shouldn't feel they're forced to go back to work because now they don't have a child to take care of. But they do have a child to take care of. We continue parenting those children. They don't go away.
Hazel will remain in my heart forever, and I parent her through many other things now, having Hazel's Heroes. I'm the vice-president of SIDS Calgary Society. I know many other parents who continue to have lasting legacies for their children, and they parent them in other ways. We still have our full-time work. We still have our other children, but to be given a bit of time, a bit of that emotional support, that financial support from the government, can make a very big difference in the life of a bereaved parent.