National Adult Literacy Database

June 2, 2003

The following story was written by Donna Horne, from Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia. Donna is a student with the Bedford-Sackville Literacy Network (BSLN). She moved from Little Dover, NS to Lower Sackville, NS in December 2002. Donna attends Math, Communications and Computer Basics classes at BSLN.

Starting Over

by Donna Horne

I liked working at Canso Sea Freeze Ltd. because I enjoyed working around a lot of people and friends. There were about three hundred people working there. I had worked at Canso Sea Freeze Ltd for twenty-two years. And one day they just said they were closing the fishing industry, because the species were disappearing. The fish species would have to be allowed to expand and the young fish grow. Now I have to start over and decide what I want to do in life.

So now my husband and I are planning on selling our home down in the country and getting something around the Lower Sackville area. We don't like to have to make this long move, but we had to decide to do something. My husband has two tickets. One is second-class refrigeration and the other is fourth-class bailer, so he won't have too much trouble finding a job.

But I am deciding to upgrade and work to become a personal care worker. I have twenty-two years left in the work force and I have to try to better myself.

About four years ago the government was telling us to get out of the fishing industry and relocate and they would help us, but we didn't listen. We thought they were foolish. We just weren't going to listen to them. We didn't' t think it was going to happen. Now we see today. We are now laid off. There are a few still working, but very little. They may work about three months out of a year. It will be years before the species ever come back. So now we have to try and start over.