For my first ever post “Women that I admire” I wanted to have the first one be about my mom. My mom has raised eight children. The span from oldest to youngest is eleven years. My Mom was born and raised in North Hollywood, California, her father was in broadcasting and later became a stage manager at CBS Studios. When she graduated high school she left home and attended school at BYU in Provo,Utah. There she met my dad.
He courted her and eventually they were married. What my mom did not know is that her whole life was literally going to change. A year after they lived in Los Angeles,where my mom was teaching at Taft High School. My dad wanted to move up to Canada to take over his parents farm. The goal was to live up there for five years. That’s what he told her. Fast forward to forty plus years later, she is still on that farm in Canada.
I admire my mom in so many ways. I know that even to this day she never really wanted to live on a farm. I get it because I left that farm as soon as I turned eighteen, but my mom knew it was important to my dad, so she sacrificed . My mom being a school teacher would be able to teach anywhere, but its in my father’s blood to be a farmer. He loves it and to this day at almost seventy-five years old he is still farming away.
My mom worked two jobs. She was a full-time school teacher and worked at a department store Thursday thru Saturday. I didn’t appreciate it at the time, nor did I understand the depth of her sacrifice and devotion to my Father. Farming didn’t always bring in money. Some years we had a bad crop and did not make any money at all . We were dependent on what “Mother Nature” brought that year. I know there were several years in a row where there was no income coming in from the farm, and my mom did what she needed to do to put food on the table and clothing and shoes on us. Every year she somehow managed to take us to Los Angeles to visit my grandparents and other family. She drove all eight of us kids from Alberta, Canada to California, that’s a 2 day drive in a car with no AC. My mom wanted to make sure we got a vacation. It was a huge undertaking, but she always made it happen.
My mom as a Brownie.
My daughters, Avery (right) and Jordyn (left) with my mom and I
On top of that, I was not always such an easy teenager. I was quite moody and a little brat. It wasn’t until I moved away from home and actually had my own kids, that I could really understand the magnitude of my Mothers strength.
She also endured being criticized and was treated poorly for working and not staying at home to raise her kids. I had no idea that happened until about five years ago, which is another example of my Mother’s strength. She never complained, only did what she needed to do. She was a woman who was just doing the best she could, working so hard to contribute to take care of her family, all the while she was being judged and treated differently. Still, she soldiered on with grace.
A lot of the qualities I hold myself to today are because of my mom. She shaped me to be a strong woman from a place of resilience and grace. What a gift she is to me and all women.
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