handout/The Globe and Mail
For nine months, Maureen Ambersley followed the same routine when she came home from a shift at the Mississauga long-term care home where she was a nurse. She’d strip off her scrubs at the door, throw them in the laundry, shower, and then change into one of her silky African-print house dresses. Exhausted from being on her feet all day, the 57-year-old would lie in bed with the door wide open – her perch allowed her to see all the goings-on in the Brampton home that housed four generations.
When her 26-year-old son, Floyd, returned from his job at Amazon, she would call out, “Bwoy, where ya going? Come here and tell me ‘bout your day.” Mr. Ambersley would climb into bed with his mother, who loved nothing more than watching Disney movies and cuddling with family, and inevitably hear about