From my childhood, I can only think of one person who really stands out as someone who has always been there and has never given up on me, and that is my wonderful mother. I wouldn’t describe her life as “hard”, “trivial”, or “underprivileged”, but she has certainly had her fair share of hard times, and she has always remained strong and made it through. When she was a thirteen year old seventh grader, she moved with her parents from Kettering, Ohio to Peachtree City, Georgia. By then, her older sister and brother were already married or away at school, so she was basically an only child. She says that the hardest part of the move was moving away from her entire family to a new state where she knew no one. She says that her parents helped her through this time the most. Before she formed her own group of friends, she went shopping, on vacations, and to dinner with her parents. However, the move made one major negative impact on her life, she developed anorexia.
The winter after she moved, my mom caught chicken pox. She had a really bad case and lost her appetite almost completely. My mom was chubby as a child. When she was better, she thought “wow, I’ve lost a lot of weight!” and decided to continue with her “diet”. She would eat an apple or an ice cream sandwich every day to calm her hunger cravings, at least a little bit. My granny knew that my mom had a problem, but she didn’t know how to handle it. My mom says that Granny never forced her to eat, but they would go to Burger King every Friday and my mom would binge. That next Thanksgiving, my mom’s family went back to Ohio. Seeing her family and friends again, my mom realized how many people loved her just the way she was and she ate a full meal, and never went back to her habits. Throughout her yearlong battle, she lost 30 lbs. She got down to 90 lbs.
Later in life, my mom had an ectopic pregnancy. She had married my dad and had my older sister, Katherine, by then. Katherine was almost three when my mom found out that she was pregnant again. Not long after, she began spotting and knew something was wrong. She went to the doctor and found out that the fetus was lodged in her fallopian tube and would most likely not survive. Her doctor gave her a drug commonly used for cancer treatment to force a miscarriage since the fetus did not have a heartbeat, yet. My mom took this very hard, because she became sick after and wasn’t sure if she would be able to have any more children. However, she was eventually cleared to try again, and she quickly became pregnant with another baby, me. When I asked her about this whole experience, she said that she prayed continuously and just kept faith that God would answer her prayers. She says that I am her little miracle. She realizes that if everything had worked out with the other baby, she never would have had me and her whole life would be different. She said that her family was very supportive of her throughout everything and that they helped a lot when it came to moving on and accepting her fate.
Although my mom has been through a lot, she says the hardest thing she has had to go through is the death of Granny. When Granny was put in the hospital after hitting her head, we were all in Kansas for my cousin’s wedding. The day she was hospitalized, we were scheduled to head home. However, my mom stayed behind for a week to spend time with Granny. When she got home, she planned another trip to see Granny, because Granny wasn’t stable and she knew she wasn’t going to make it. Two weeks later, right before my mom went back to Kansas, Granny died. It was really hard on my mom, but she stayed strong enough to plan the service and put Granny’s house on the market. After the service, my mom broke down. She wanted to be alone and slept a lot. She said that when she was lying in bed, she would pray and talk to Granny and ask her to stay with her to help her through it. She said that she had a lot of dreams about Granny and she knew it was Granny telling her that she was okay and my mom had to be with us. I know that these dreams and my mom’s alone time helped her through this hard time because she was able to think about everything and move on on her own terms. Although it is still hard not having Granny around, it is easier, because my mom has her family to support her and help her when she starts to feel the pain.
My mom is my hero not only because of the things she has been through, but also because of the things she has helped me through. I have certainly had my times where I felt like giving up and like I was going nowhere, but she has always pushed me on and helped me through. She has never told me that I can’t do something and helps me to believe in myself. She has been the best mother that anyone can ask for. Her hugs can make everything disappear and her back scratches are to die for. If an encouraging, loving mother isn’t a hero, I don’t know what is. Without her, I wouldn’t be attending Western Carolina University in the fall and I wouldn’t have made it through all of the drama of high school to become the person I am today.
