A Christmas wish turned into a nightmare and then into a miracle for a Montreal nanny.
Elenor Diaz moved to Montreal from her native Philippines in 1997, leaving behind a husband and three young children.
With those children no longer so young, Diaz has been saving the money she's earned from working three jobs as a nanny to bring her family to Montreal to live with her.
"I want my children to have a good life, to have a future so that I could send them to school," Diaz said.
Diaz spent days preparing for the arrival of her family.
"She bought all their favourite things," said Diaz's employer, Lissa Matyas. "She had the fridge packed with christmassy things that they would have in the Philippines, like grapes, apples, all of their favourite fruits."
It was supposed to become a reality on Christmas day, with Diaz having spent $4,000 cash to buy four plane tickets through a Manila-based travel agency ironically named Honour Travel and Touring.
But when her husband and their three children showed up at the airport, they were told their tickets had been cancelled. The travel agency through which Diaz purchased the tickets has vanished, and with it any hope of getting her money back.
"I stayed there in the corner and I was crying and talking to God, ‘Why it's happened and what happened to my family?'" Diaz said, tearing up as she recalled the feeling of betrayal. "For now I'm really broke because I send everything. Because not only did I send 4,000 for the ticket, but money for the clothes they were going to wear going here, the luggage, the food, everything."
The story, first reported by The Gazette, struck a nerve with Larry Modafferi, the CEO of Ria Canada, a company that wires money to various countries, including the Philippines. He paid $5,800 to purchase four tickets from Manila to Montreal.
"The Filipino community is dear to our company's heart," Modafferi said. "We felt we needed to help them."
Diaz's family is scheduled to arrive at Trudeau Airport late Tuesday night.
