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Sometimes it takes an immigrant to remind us how fortunate we are to be Americans.
For Ethel Hoistad, that immigrant is Patricia Adelekun.
Adelekun came to the United States in 1996 from Nigeria and became a citizen in 2003. The women met at Community Bible Study in Gastonia, where Hoistad expected to learn about the Bible.
She did.
She also came away with a deeper appreciation for living here and the freedoms we celebrate on this July Fourth after hearing Adelekun talk about why her family came to America.
“She told us about the struggle they had to become what they are today, and how lucky we are to be what we are today, to have always lived in a safe environment and in a place where we didn't need to worry about somebody attacking us within the hour,” Hoistad said. “I would drive home and think: ‘I have been so lucky.'”
Adelekun, who speaks English in a West African cadence, said she feels lucky to be an American. “It was,” she said, “my dream from the beginning.”
‘You can achieve anything'
The dream began in the city of Ife in Nigeria, which is Africa's most populous country and its leading oil producer, but where more than half of the 140 million people live in poverty.
Adelekun said she worked as a nurse and her husband, Temidayo, was a nephrologist who taught medical students. They left when the country fell under military rule and civil unrest.
In Nigeria, life expectancy for women is 47 years, compared to 78 in the United States. Adelekun is 45.
“I have achieved way more here than anything that I had achieved in my whole life before,” she said. “I would not say it was easy. The initial years were really tough. But I realized that with education, hard work and perseverance you can achieve anything in America.”
They settled in a one-room studio apartment in Queens in New York City, where Adelekun took a job as a cashier and her husband worked as a security officer. After he passed the medical exam, he began a residency at Interfaith Medical Center in Brooklyn; after she passed a nursing exam, she juggled two nursing jobs, at a school and in a nursing home.
They heard about Gastonia through a family friend and moved down in January 2001. They wanted a quieter place to raise their four children, two girls born in Nigeria, two sons born in the U.S.
‘Put in your own effort'
“The news says a lot of negatives about America, but people who have lived in other places know they are blessed if they take advantage of the opportunities to improve your life,” she said. “A lot of people take it for granted that they're Americans and they expect it to happen like magic. You have to put in your own effort. Personally, I believe education is the key.”
Their oldest daughter, Addy, graduated second in her class this year at Forestview High School and was named a Senior of the Year in the Observer's All-Star Scholars competition. She will attend Vanderbilt University, then medical school. Their youngest daughter, Dolly, 15, will attend the N.C. School of Science and Mathematics in Durham this fall.
“I tell my kids, this year it will be 13 years since we've been in America and we have achieved so much,” Adelekun said. She works part-time as a nurse at Gaston Memorial Hospital and runs Heavenly Touch Care Home for the elderly in Kings Mountain. Her husband owns Kings Clinic and Urgent Care in Kings Mountain.
“I remember the first time we traveled with our American passports,” she said. “We had to pass through Europe. We had different treatment with the blue passport. It kind of makes you feel wonderful. And when you come back and the immigration people say ‘Welcome back home,' that makes you feel wonderful.”
Her children sometimes ask if she misses home, meaning Nigeria.
“I'm home,” she said she tells them. “Why would I miss home when I am home?”
