Help Rose Wang and Her Family

My name is Quiann, I'm 16 years old, and I am Rose Wang’s youngest daughter. My mother, Rose, is an incredibly talented seamstress, artist, and business owner in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. As an immigrant mother of 5 kids, she has worked relentlessly her entire life. Just a couple months ago, she was diagnosed with colon cancer at age 64.

When she, my father, and their first two children first came to America, they were homeless. They worked hard at minimum wage factory jobs to make enough money to feed their family. She began studying to become a nurse as well, because she was an esteemed nurse in China, but the papers were lost during immigration. From California, to New York, and now to Massachusetts, they have been working non-stop to support their family and give their children the lives they never got to have. About 10 years ago, my father became unable to work for several reasons. Since then, she stopped pursuing a nursing degree and became the only working parent in the household. She started her own business that provides custom sewing, embroidery, and art which has serviced countless people in Central Massachusetts, as well as several loyal customers across the country. She works over 12 hours 7 days a week on customer orders and her own business projects, on top of her full-time position at UMass Memorial hospital as a PCA. Despite all of these efforts, she only makes about $45,000 per year, which has been barely enough money to scrape by feeding our family. Cutting corners in clothes, food, and quality of life has been the only way we have stayed afloat this long.

However, now that she has been diagnosed with cancer and experiences abdominal and intestinal pain each day, it’s impossible for her to work these long hours without treatments. It’s important that she rests a lot to recover as soon as possible, but that results in little income for the foreseeable future, making it hard to make ends meet. My father is currently 70 and knows very little English, and it’s nearly impossible for him to get a job. Most of my siblings are in college and/or in debt themselves, and I am still in high school. Even though we all work small jobs to help out, all of us still depend on her heavily for financial support and cannot cover the family's expenses on our own. Without a steady income to pay personal and hospital bills, we are at risk of losing our home, our car, our pets, and most importantly, our mom.

It hurts to watch her in pain every day and the last thing I want her to do is continue working herself to the bone just to keep us afloat, which puts her health at further risk. It’s crucial to me, my father, my siblings, and everyone in Shrewsbury that loves Rose just as dearly that she recovers. It’s already difficult to know that my mother is relatively old and likely won’t be very healthy by the time I have my own children or have my wedding, but now I have to live in fear that she won't even see me graduate high school.

Her surgery is scheduled for November 2. She will be unable to work for the 6 weeks that follow so she can recover, and she and our family have no way to sustain ourselves during that time. She is already incredibly stressed with her health and the financial situation already as immigrants, and this is even more on her plate that will stress her body, making it harder for her to recover effectively.

I created this fundraiser in hopes of collecting enough money for our family to get by. We greatly appreciate any and all donations to help us pay these bills. Once Rose recovers, she would like to give those who donate over $50 a complimentary watercolor painting. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and for helping make our situation a little easier.