As a 15-year-old, Nina struggled to stay safe while trying to help her family stay alive. Nina grew up quickly both mentally & physically from those experience. When she arrived in Canada, she was 18 and didn’t speak any English but as Roger can attest, she learned fast! The couple met three years after Nina arrived in Ottawa.

Roger was born and raised in Ottawa. But his life growing up wasn’t that much different then Nina’s. His war was living in an unsafe neighborhood, drugs and alcohol were the norm on his streets he says. He needed to grow up fast to be able to protect himself from that environment. As a teenager he struggled because he didn’t want to follow in the footsteps of those around him. Luckily he had a good head on his shoulders and the mental toughness to move out of that lifestyle and make a name for himself.

Although they come from totally different backgrounds, they quickly found out that they both had the same goals and dreams for their future. As Nina would say “I knew he was the one from the first moment I laid eyes on him.” They both agree, “We hit it off that night and became so inseparable, to the point that for the first 2 years, we didn’t miss a day without seeing each other, but that wasn’t hard to do as we worked across the street from each other”. Nina was a server at Swiss Chalet and Roger was working at a dealership selling cars across the street.

Eventually, they moved to Toronto and got married 7 years into their relationship. Bought their first house and then had two beautiful kids. And you know what they say… the rest is history!
Nina & Roger have been happily together for 23 years, they fight, they cry, they laugh, they drive each other crazy and they work together. Most importantly, they wouldn’t trade any of it for the world!