Happy Mother's Day
Things were not easy for us when I was a kid. When my parents split up, it was still a somewhat unusual thing, whereas today, it seems the unusual case is for parents to stay together. It was just my Mom and I back then, as Dad was stationed on the other side of the globe. She taught high school during the day, adult ed at night, and worked on her master’s degree during the summer. At one point, she had 3 different jobs I recall. This was all fairly transparent to me. We never had a lot, but we had enough. I’m sure I wasn’t as appreciative then as I should have been, just as today it escapes my own daughters just how fortunate they are.
When I, like all sixteen year old boys, wanted to get a job to buy a car, she said no. “You’ll have plenty of time to work in your lifeâ€, and told me she wanted me to focus on my grades. I had friends working at McDonald’s and Bill Miller’s, making money and driving cars – I really wanted the “financial independence†that fast-food job would bring. Boy, was she ever right about that one. We filled out endless scholarship applications and the grades / test scores paid off; I basically won a paid ride thru Texas A&M.
To this day, she still works harder than anyone I know. Now just one job, but still 80-100 hrs a week at Alamo Community College where she is a full professor. At an age when most people are thinking about retirement, Mom went back to school to start work on her doctorate. And, about 5 years ago, at 60+ she earned her phD. Since starting that journey 10 years earlier, she buried two parents, and then unexpectedly a brother.
A hundred times she could have quit through the years. Through all those long nights of grading papers, writing papers, helping me with my writing and projects, working literally all night more times than I can count just so we could have a normal life. I doubt I could ever say thank you enough for your sacrifice Mom. I can say now that I truly appreciate you. Happy Mother’s Day Mom.