Things were going fine for April. She was married, had three healthy kids, and lived in her own home. Her husband worked while she stayed home to raise the children. But then in 2011, her husband was deported back to Honduras. She’s been trying to work through the long and complicated process of petitioning for a reversal of this decision to reunite her family, but the process is confusing, demands trips to offices in Greensboro, and requires a lawyer—all major obstacles that a woman raising three children suddenly on her own with no transportation, has not been able to navigate.
As if losing her husband and only source of independent income was not hard enough, she now faces a host of parenting challenges as her children get older and have to face the racism at school that many biracial children face. But her children are a source of strength for her and together, they have formed a close and loving family. Part of that family has been their pets, including their dog Zeus. When Zeus died, they had his ashes put inside an engraved box, holding onto good memories as they continue to make new ones.
Every day is a balancing act, bringing new joys and challenges. Birthdays are offset with trips to the emergency room. In the span of just a few weeks, she found herself at the hospital twice, with a sty that made her eye swell shut, and her daughter with severe migraine headaches. In quieter moments, April dreams of moving out of Burlington to her own home and a reliable car that would allow her to become more self-sufficient.