The 44-year-old Oakville woman has been in a coma since she underwent two surgeries to remove a benign brain tumour.

Lean, 14, and sister Saniel, 11, arrived Canada this week to visit their mother and are burdened with the task of deciding, with input from other relatives, if they should tell doctors to let her go peacefully.

“We brought the girls here to see their mother before she became a memory for them,” said Aileen Banzon Tan, Gerente’s cousin, who escorted the girls to Canada. “We’ll have to set a time to stop Maricon’s medication. We don’t want to see her suffer any more.”

Working in Canada as a live-in caregiver since 2008, Gerente, the breadwinner for the girls and her siblings, has been waiting to get permanent resident status in Canada since 2011.

She was so close to fulfilling her dream. Two days after she went into the coma, immigration officials tried to contact her for an interview regarding her application.

Her passing will put Lean’s and Saniel’s future in limbo.

Eli and Jodie Gilbert, Gerente’s former employers and now friends, are trying to help the dying woman’s hopes for her daughters come true.

The Oakville couple set up an Aeroplan Charitable Pooling Account to accept donated points to cover the plane tickets for the trio. A trust fund has been established to raise money to help support the young girls.

“It’s just so sad — all these women like Maricon have to move away and work so hard to provide for their family back home and bring them here,” said Jodie Gilbert. “She’s spent her entire life doing that, looking after others’ children while away from her own.”

Gerente, who is divorced for the girl’s father, left them in her care when they were still infants, working as a caregiver in Paris before coming to Canada because this country could offer her a pathway for permanent status.

While working for the Gilberts, she spent her evenings taking classes in a two-year program to become a personal support worker. She left the family’s employ in 2011, when she had met the live-in requirement and obtained an open work permit.

“She believes this is the place for the future of her children,” Tan said.

Lean and Saniel last saw their mother in the summer of 2012 and were told she had already started collecting items her girls would need when they joined her in Canada.

However, in October, Gerente was hit by a debilitating headache. The Gilberts, who remained good friends, took her to Oakville-Trafalgar Memorial Hospital, which transferred her to Trillium Health Centre in Mississauga. A tumour the size of a mandarin was found in her brain. She has been in a “chronic vegetative state” since then.

“It’s hard to see her like this. I can’t imagine her in bed. She was a strong woman,” said Lean, who, along with her sister, attends a private school because Gerente wanted them to have the best education.

“She always talks about the dream of all of us being in Canada. She says she loves Canada because it is good for the kids and the people are very kind.”

Tan said the family plans to spread half of Gerente’s ashes in Canada and take the other half to the Philippines. “This is the place where she wants to be forever.”

An immigration application usually terminates with the death of the applicant, but there have been exceptional cases where processing of dependants proceeds, under humanitarian and compassionate considerations.

Gerente’s daughters said they want to live in Canada. But their case would be very complicated as they are still minors, with a living parent back in the Philippines, and have no immediate family in Canada.

Contributions to the girls’ air mileage can be made to the charitable pooling account 771296605. Donations can be made to the Bank of Montreal, at the account 2472-897-8219, or through Interac and e-transfers to maricontrust@icloud.com .
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You can read this article in today’s issue of Toronto Star in the GTA section.