Growing up, I only had my mother, she was always there. My mom was the type to push me to be the best and scold me if I ever doubted myself. However, my mother never went to college. A very hard worker, she encouraged me to do my best at anything I set my mind to doing. My mom was always working to provide for my brother, my sister, and myself. How she maintained three jobs at a time I will never know. My mom was employed at Lowes, CVS/Pharmacy, and Insight Diagnostics as a receptionist; doing this allowed her just enough time to provide us with transportation, and it seemed she never gave herself time to rest. As I grew older, my mother developed health problems. By the time I was sixteen, she had endured two heart attacks and was still pushing herself onward. I began a job at Mama’s Pizza to help provide for my family. As she got sicker and weaker, I became the primary source of income, working thirty five hours a week while maintaining A’s and B’s in school.
The morning of Sunday October 30th, 2011, my little brother, Jon, found my mother unconscious on the floor in her room. She had suffered a stroke on her thirty eighth birthday. The hours that followed were some of excruciating heartache. The only thought in my mind was why did it have to be her? My family had been through so much pain and struggle already. The stroke had left her in a comatose state, the decision had been left to me; pull the cord or not? Many thoughts raced through my mind as I contemplated the years of struggle she had gone through, I realized that she would be in peace; she was in pain here and I wanted to let her finally rest. Although I wanted nothing more than to keep her with me, I released any selfishness I had and allowed the doctors to take my mother off the machines. I decided to wait until the next morning, after her birthday had passed. At 10:15 a.m. on Monday, October 31, 2011, my mother was removed from the life support. However, for ten minutes, she remained alive; she fought until her very last breath.
The passing of my mother triggered something within me. I realized that, although she never outwardly expressed struggling; I did not want to work three jobs in order to provide for my family. My mother was a resilient woman; no matter what obstacles she faced, she always managed to battle through them. She taught me never to give up, to reach for the stars, and to always believe I could achieve any goal I set for myself. Her death renewed my ambitions. Now, more than ever, I want to succeed in school and become an athletic trainer, so I can make my mother proud, just as she made me proud every day growing up as I watched her struggle to support our family and battle health issues.