Faces in the Crowd – Stay Strong, Amma

As a young girl, growing up in Madurai, India, she had big dreams. She was fascinated with airplanes and with medicine.

Meet Lalitha Natarajan.

She and her husband, Roger, moved to Canada in the early 70’s. For 31 years she toiled as a Personal Care Worker at a local nursing home. The hours were long, the work was rewarding and she loved caring for the people she served. She also laced up her boots and helped her young daughter with a paper route, once delivering the Herald in -45 weather. She taught her children the meaning of hard work and perseverance. She led by example.

Today, her daughter is a doctor and her son is a commercial airline pilot. Lalitha is living her dreams vicariously.

Cruelly, her husband was taken away from her in a motor vehicle accident not long after she had retired. She went into mourning and still grieves daily. But she has channeled her grief by giving back to the community. She helps serve hot meals two days a week at a local church, to people who need nourishment of body and soul. They provide her with comfort and a sense of family.

Her grandchildren call her “amma”, a term of endearment. They recently scribbled a few notes to their grandmother on a fridge magnet: “Stay strong.” “Things happen for a reason.”

They needn’t worry.

It is not easy being strong but Lalitha has demonstrated strength her entire life. In her words, “Success doesn’t come without suffering.”