To my Mom!

Since this Sunday is Mother's Day, I thought I would write a little something about my mother.

My mother is probably the strongest woman I have ever met. She raised my sister and I with no help from my father. She started working in a male-dominated industry in the late 70's. She had to deal with men calling her "buns" and working as hard if not harder than her male counterparts and getting paid half the salary. She has since told me a story about getting a letter from my school explaining that with her income I would qualify for free lunches. When she took this letter to the man she worked for, he simply told her, "Well, your dad makes a lot of money, ask him for help." I can remember her wearing the same clothes for years so she could afford to make sure my sister and I looked nice, take dance lessons and have all the Cabbage Patch Kids we wanted. She never missed work even when she was sick, when her kids were sick she was lucky enough to have my grandmother live in front of us so she could go to work. My mother made sure that my sister and I had no clue that we were "poor". We never knew how much she struggled to pay the light bill, groceries, dance bill, etc... My mother brought one man around my sister and I. They dated for a couple of years and we LOVED him. They talked about moving in together, he took all of us to go looking at houses, when we were in the houses he would say, "This will be your room." and "Look girls, y'all wouldn't have to share a bedroom anymore." Then one day he quit coming around. My sister and I would ask my mom, "What did you do, why did you send him away?" She never would really answer us. I found out when I was an adult, that it was not my mother that ended the relationship...it was him. He told her he did not want to raise kids. She didn't want us to know that this man that she loved left her because of us. Since I've gotten older, I have asked my mother why she never brought dates around us and she has given me two reasons... 1. She saw how heartbroken we were when the first man left. 2. She said that she would read stories in the newspaper about "Young girl molested by mother's live in boyfriend or stepfather. In a perfect world, all mother's would put their children first, but we do not live in a perfect world. I can honestly say, my mother did put us first. She wanted us to have the best life we could possibly have. People think that it's strange that my mother and I are not affectionate, we very rarely hug and we don't tell each other that we love each other. But, we don't have to. I'm happy to say, my mother is very successful now. She can now shower my sister's kids with the things she could not afford for us. She is now the plant general manager for the company that is in that same male-dominated industry she started in. Now, she tells the men what needs to be done. To all of the women who are my age, we really need to thank the women of our mother's generation for throwing open the doors and letting us follow behind them into the work force. Because of them, we are paid better, can take maternity leave, birth control pills are covered on insurance, and we are now respected. I would like to say Thank you Mom, thank you for all that you have done for us. Thank you for telling me that I could be anything I wanted to be. Thank you for making the sacrifices so that my sister and I could take dance lessons. Thank you for never missing a performance. Thank you for letting me make my own mistakes, so I can know what not to do the next time. Thank you for sleeping on a cot in the hospital with me when I was 17. Thank you for letting me cry when the losers of my life have left me. Thank you for making all of my friends feel welcome in our home. And last, but not least, Thank you for molding me into the woman that I am today.

To all of the Moms out there...

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!

Until next time...

Single Girl