It was 2 a.m. when Rhoda Williams rolled up to her Prince George home in late August after three months away.
There were already tears in her eyes, which started when she saw the city's lights. In the driveway, her husband Darren McKay held her hand and whispered to her: "We did it."
She walked into her 17-year-old son's room, and touched him on the shoulder.
"He turned around and he jumped up at me and he hugged me," said Williams, who had been staying in Vancouver since an emergency liver transplant in early June.
"We hugged like that for like three minutes. He was crying on my shoulder," said the 40-year-old with primary biliary cirrhosis.
PCB is a rare autoimmune disease that has no cure. It leads to inflamed and irritated bile ducts of the liver, eventually destroying them.
It was an emotional reunion for the mother of four, who found being away from her sons was the hardest part of healing.
But every month for the next year she has to head back to Vancouver to meet with the liver specialist as well as a heart specialist to monitor the heat pains she started having.
She's on disability, but it doesn't cover patient travel expenses.
Money is so tight, she asked her doctor if she could skip the checkup.
"He got upset," said Williams, who is heading down for the appointment this week.
"He said I have to go."
Her local doctor gave her a note in support, in case it helps.
It reads: "This lady is required to visit Vancouver monthly in the first year following liver transplant and will need financial support for travel and accommodation."
While her stay at the Aboriginal Patients' Lodge is covered, every other cost comes out of the couple's pockets. When in Vancouver, she had to ask friends back home to bring her son food to eat.
Since she's been back, friends have helped with wild meat and the family has visited food banks for help.
They'll be driving south in a van that they are continually late on payments. It just had the wheel bearings fixed but a mechanic who knew their situation only made them pay for parts.
"Everything has been easier after my transplant but financially we've been struggling," she said.
"(I've been) stressing out about it all the time."
"It's just really overwhelming," she said between sniffles, adding she's grateful for the friends and readers who heard her story and offered to help. She sends her thanks on a Facebook page about her recovery, "most of all to the 18-year-old liver donor that saved my life, God bless your soul and (I'm) thankful for you everyday of my life for being my perfect match."
With her new liver Williams takes more than two dozen pills a day. She goes in for blood work every two weeks and said she's visibly different.
"My cheeks were sunken in. I was so skinny," she said, adding her skin was yellowed.
"I couldn't retain any weight."
She gained 20 pounds after the surgery.
"They said that I look like I did before, like 10 years ago," she said. "It made me cry. It felt really good to hear that I look healthy. Before it didn't really bother me but it kind of got to me when people would say that I look sick."
The cold Prince George weather has been harder on her body, tensing up her stomach area.
"It causes me to be sore all the time," said Williams, who learned the hard way she still has to take it easy. When she returned, she tried to clean her house only to hurt herself.
"I have to be very careful in case of infection," she said of eating certain foods or getting injured.
She noticed change in the little things. Before her injury she could barely walk, but now she can climb stairs. She tries to hold on to these moments outside the stress of money.
"The energy is really amazing, being able to breathe, not being tired, it feels great," she said. "I still feel pain but it's not as bad as when I was sick.
"I'm loving life more now."
Friends have set up a fundraising page for Williams at www.gofundme.com/z7pf2t8.
Williams updates her recovery on Facebook at pgc.cc/1j3T2rv.
