Laura McShane and her Mom

When 20-year-old Laura McShane (pictured left with her mother Bernadette) stepped off the plane in Missoula, Mont. as part of the Building Bridges program in 1997, she looked beat. She remembers people holding a banner welcoming the group of young Irish men and women to Big Sky Country. But they had been traveling for 24 hours and she wanted to sleep.

It didn't take long before she was homesick. She made lots of long distance phone calls back to her mother Bernadette in her hometown of Dundalk, Ireland. "It was quite a bill," Bernadette remembered. Laura has always relied on her mother. And it's no different today.

Laura has almost always been working since she returned from Missoula more than 13 years ago. One of eight kids, she first got a job at a Heinz plant in Dundalk before going to work in a retirement home. On her off days, she studied for exams that gave her certification to work with developmentally challenged people. She's been working in a rehabilitation house for the past three years. But it's been Laura's private life that hasn't been so smooth. (In the picture at left, John visits with Bernadette and Laura)

Laura said she got in some bad relationships that didn't work out. She gave birth to her first son Sean in 1999. Five years later, she was pregnant again. This times didn't quite go as planned. She told us that the baby was premature and had to spend time in the neonatal wing of the hospital. At 10 weeks old, the baby died. Laura says she was told the baby died of a blood disorder. Later, she said, the tests came back negative. She said they then told her the baby died of cot death also known as sudden infant death syndrome.

Laura was devastated. She said she was wailing and wouldn't let them take the baby away. She said when someone would let her know they were sorry for her loss, it just made her more upset. At the funeral, she said she didn't want to see the coffin closed. And she said she very nearly jumped into the grave at the burial. She was in a very dark place.

But her mother was there for her. Laura moved back home to be with her family. Bernadette quit her job at a daycare and looked after Sean while Laura was grieving. Laura went back to work but the anti-depressants she was taking made her almost a zombie, she said. Laura said she would come home from work and just sit in her room watching television. If anyone would come to check on her, she said she would lash out at them.

She started thinking about Sean who was then only five. She stopped taking her medication and decided to move forward for her son. She saved up her money and bought a house. About the same time, she decided to learn how to drive. Two-and-a-half-years ago she gave birth to her second son Kyle.

Sean's (pictured today at left) now 11 and in his last year of primary school. Kyle has just started to attend day care. They stay with his grandmother and the rest of the family while their mother is at work. Bernadette, herself an only child, likes her house to be open to anyone. Family, friends and friends of friends all come and sit for a chat. She lives in a working class neighborhood not from the Dundalk Institute of Technology where we visited last week. "It's a madhouse," Laura said. "But I like it that way," Bernadette continued.

Last Christmas, mom came to Laura's rescue again. Laura was leaving a Christmas party when she tripped and broke her ankle in three places. Unable to get around on her own to finish shopping for Christmas, her mom pushed her around the stores in a wheelchair. "I wanted to go one direction and she would push me in the other," Laura laughed.

Laura is now taking Sean to open days at a number of secondary schools to see where he'll be next year. She's very excited that Sean will be confirmed next year as well. And it won't be long before young Kyle is off to preschool. But Laura doesn't have to worry too much. Her mom will be there, only a five minute drive away, for all of them.