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Dr. Simar Hundal (DDS ’11) never really expected to come to Nova Scotia. And she certainly never expected to stay. But her son persuaded her that Halifax should be the family’s home. That son, Angad, died in a motorcycle accident in August 2013, a few weeks before starting a BSc degree at Dalhousie University. Like his mother, he wanted to be a dentist.

Simar Hundal practised as both a dentist and a lecturer in India between 1994 and 2008. In May 2008 she landed in Mississauga with the aim of qualifying as a dentist in Canada. Her husband and son joined her later that year.

“Don’t give up now”

After passing the eligibility exam, the interviews with Canadian dental schools began. Nervously Hundal went to interviews and was disappointed at the first two places she tried. “It was Angad who said to me, ‘Don’t give up now. You can do this’. And somehow when I came to Dal, I was relaxed, the interview went well, and I was selected.”

Hundal started the two-year Qualifying Program in 2009. “I totally enjoyed it,” she says. “I learned new things, new techniques. The professors here spend a lot of time with you and pay a great attention to detail. They are hard on you, but in a good way. I also enjoyed the energy of the younger students. At the same time, I became accustomed to a new life and a new culture.”

When Hundal graduated from Dal, the plan was to return to Toronto, where jobs were more plentiful. But Angad had other ideas. “He loved it here and he said to us that we could go to Toronto, but he wanted to stay. So we stayed, too.”

Hundal worked in Goose Bay, Labrador, for many months, travelling back and forth, to earn the money to buy a practice in Nova Scotia. “I worked so hard and bought two practices in Dartmouth. And then when I finally achieved what I wanted to achieve, I lost everything.”

Angad graduated from high school in August 2013 and was preparing to begin his studies at Dal when he was killed in a single motorcycle accident.

Turning grief into something positive

At first, Hundal grieved. She couldn’t work a year. “Then I decided to move on and find new opportunities in life,” she says. “I decided to create a scholarship in Angad’s name as a way for me to keep his memory alive in a positive way.”

At a ceremony held in Halifax Central Library on September 3, 2016, the first Angad Hundal Memorial Award was awarded to Noah Shields, who graduated from the Halifax Christian Academy and is now studying to become a pilot at Prairie College in Three Hills, Alberta.  

Sundal says she chose Noah from among the 120 applicants for the $5000 award because of the honesty of his application. “I wanted to find a student who had many of the qualities that Angad had, such as self-discipline, respect, thoughtfulness, and empathy. Angad was quiet, but he felt deeply.”

Sundal has no plans to leave Halifax. Angad wanted to study at Dal and had a “mission” to become a dentist. “He brought me here and he left me here. We bonded with this place and everything that is connected to him is here.”

A society has been established to manage the Angad Hundal Memorial Award, which will be awarded annually. Representatives from the Dalhousie Faculty of Dentistry and the Nova Scotia Dental Association attended the award presentation ceremony on September 3, 2016.