Totally Amazing

In light of my previous post, I just wanted to share a little bit about my mom...

My mom got pregnant with me when she was 14 years old. She married my dad when she was 14 years old (he was 18 at the time). She turned 15 only 9 days before I was born. She is still married to my dad - 28 years later.

Here are the snippets of what I remember about my mom's career:

When I was 3 years old, we lived in an apartment across the street from a shopping plaza. My mom didn't have her driver's license yet. She worked at a restaurant in the shopping plaza called "Duff's." My dad worked 3rd shift at a tool & die shop somewhere. She would pick up extra shifts at the restaurant whenever she could, so that we could get Christmas gifts and have birthday parties. She would walk to and from work.

When I was five years old, we moved into a house that we rented. I thought that house was HUGE after living an apartment for so long. (I have seen it in recent years, and it is actually an incredibly tiny house, but things are so different in the eyes of a child). My mom worked at the perfume counter in a department store near our house. She had her driver's license then, but we only had one car and my dad needed it because he was going to school during the day and working nights. So, she would take the bus to work.

When I was six, we moved into a town house. My dad had gotten a little bit better job after completing some of his schooling, and he entered an apprenticeship program. We moved further away from my grandparents though, so my mom didn't work for a couple of years to stay home with my brother and to be home when I got home from school. However, to get some extra money, mom baby-sat two neighbor kids every day. At this point, she went back to school to get her GED and my aunt would baby-sit us a couple nights a week for her to be able to do this. Sometime between the time I was 6 and 8, we did end up getting a second car.

When I was 8, and my brother was in school full-time, my mom went back to work. She did some kind of bookkeeping. We had a babysitter in the neighborhood after school.

When I was 9, we moved again. We bought our own house, back near our family. It was the first time I ever had a backyard. My mom got a job as a secretary for a body shop, answering phones and doing bookkeeping. My mom would drop us off at my grandma's house in the morning before school, and then go to work. My grandma would feed us breakfast and drive us to school. This was the year that we started to be home alone for about 2 hours each day after school. A couple of months later, my mom left the body shop and went to work in the bookkeeping department at a car dealer. Our routine stayed the same. My parents just moved out of that house 3 years ago.

Then, my mom went back to school to get her real estate license. She sold real estate when I was in the sixth and seventh grade. She worked her ass off, but didn't make a whole lot of money. She eventually gave it up and went back to work when I was in eighth grade. She went to work for the same company she works for now. She has changed her position there several times and went back to school for additional accounting classes, and basically now, she is their accounting department by herself.

My mom doesn't have a college degree, and both my brother and I make more money than she does. My dad eventually finished all of his schooling and everything, and he's now a project engineer for an international metal forming company.

I remember that my mom NEVER missed a sporting event or a school concert or play. We always ate a hot meal, and had pizza only on Friday's.

I still call my mom everyday at work just to say hi.

She sent me a card every single day that I was away at college.

She's 42 years old, and she's a grandma, and she's a totally amazing grandma.

She gave up so much for us, and gave so much of herself for us, and she still continues to give.

I am in awe of her. And even though I have gone on to do so many of things she wished that she could have, she is still my hero. And I totally understand why she gets her satisfaction from, and has lived her dreams through us.