Josephine Marchese

My name is Josephine Marchese, Founder of No More Wait Lists.

The oldest daughter of an Italian immigrant family we had it all in Canada. I was having the best childhoold of my life until it was destroyed by mom's mental breakdown. I recalled how my father did everything he could to help my mom get the mental health services she needed. However, my mom did not improve she only got worse. I would wake up taking care of myself, my siblings and the household chores. Than my mom's father came to Canada to convince my dad to move our whole family to Italy because he felt that the mental health care system would be better for her there. My dad felt he never had a choice, he moved us from a city to a country farm that was a major shock. But my dad had to leave us because there was no work for him. So my mom was hospitalized in a hospital far from us to get mental treatment. She came home months later and it seemed that she was doing better but it did not last. I took the role of taking care of my siblings. The stress was too much and I woke up one day not being able to walk. My mom stepped in to take care of me and I regained my legs again. Afte living in Italy for 3 years my father came back to take has back to Toronto. I can tell my father was so sad. He had lost the love of his life and he knew that she would never regain her mental state again. His heart was so broken and we believe that is why he had a heart attack at the age of 42 where he needed triple bypass surgery. That was the most scariest day of my life I thought he was going to die. I knew my father would never leave us because he knew we would not be taken care of and he was the most unselfish person. He survived the heart surgery, however, developed further health issues, which lasted until the age of 74. As a family we saw him suffer in pain and we felt hopeless and we did not know how to help me. And no other family should go through this and that is why I developed No More Wait Lists.