Reader's story: My mom

May 2009

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When my father passed away 25 years ago I was only eight years old. My mom took the reins as a single mother and forged a life for my older brother and sister and I against all odds. She had to go back to school and then work full-time, all the while looking after the three of us (plus a few dogs, cats, rabbits etc.) with some help from our grandparents.

I am now a mother of two beautiful daughters and wife of a fabulous and devoted husband. I  could not imagine losing my love and having to raise my kids on my own.  Back then it was a big deal to be a single parent. Parents warned against hanging out with a kid who was from a single parent home.

My mother is an inspiration, and I realized this not as I became a mother myself, but when I became a woman. Her strength and support for us was so great, even if it was hard to see until I started asking questions like 'Why she didn't date when we were young?' She waited until in her late 50's and found her former high school sweetheart and rekindled a lost love (and married him 4 years ago). She did that for us to not only to protect us but to be there for us. She put us first as any mother would do and I love her for that. My mother is a person to look up to and admire. She is my strength, my hope and my idol and I hope I will be able to do what my mother has done for me for my own two daughters. I am not alone because I have her.

Thank you Canadian Living for giving women like me a place to write about things that are precious to us which we want to share with the world.  My mother, grandmother, sister and I have been reading your magazine for as long as I can remember, and just this year my grandmother gave me my own subscription as a birthday gift. Now I don't have to wait for my mother to finish with it!

Thanks again.