When I was born, my mom was 21 years old, she was a young lady (a girl for most people) that got married very young and had an early awakening in life.
My parents had been married for over 4 years when they had me, and their marriage changed forever that day. Complicated things happened between them, that I'm not going into them deeply in this post as this is not to write about that but to write about my mom.
By the age of 22 and a half she was a separated woman with 2 kids (one disabled with lots of attention needed), no job, no support morally or economically from her ex husband (my father), but what she did have, was an enormous will and love for us, her two kids.
My grandma, my mom's mom, took us in. We moved into grandmas home, as a family. A strong one.
We (my brother and I) always had love, food, a warm bed and a family support of a well formed family, my mom was always enough.
She would wake up every morning to make us breakfast, as any other mom, but then her day started.
She will put us both in the car, take my brother school and then drive with me for over an hour to a physical rehab center, we use to get there by 7:45 am and get the hour of Physio that was given by the state. There, I will see my mom looking carefully at what the physiotherapist was doing, learning every movement and working out new ones that might work. Her Big blue-green eyes were always vigilant.
When the hour was gone, came her turn. She would take over and do what she had to.
I still have her voice sounding in the back of my neck, I still can feel her slow breathing behind me as she held my arms up and moved them, "out - in - out - in", "open-close-open-close"- she said. Her voice was always there guiding me and my movements.
After 5 hours of going around different rooms, like the gym or the OT, we would go back to pick Jose (my brother) up from school and have lunch, then she will sit Jose down to do homework and we went back to business, while I will play with dough or anything colourful that worked my arms she will sit in the floor and "attack" my legs, she will bend them to gain range of motion.
When 6 pm hit, it was bath time and them Tv time for a little while and them bed, but that, was just for Jose and I, for she was off to work time. She found herself a job that she could do at night time that will pay her enough to support me and my brother, she started decorating restaurants, homes, offices, etc. I remember her coming home really late at night, but then always the next morning her big blue-green eyes were ready again.
I remember one afternoon she had to go to a job interview, "An important one" she said. That night we went for a celebratory dinner, she got the job. It was the perfect one for her, it was in sales, she could have her own working hours and got paid commissions for what she sold. Well, she turned out to be a fantastic sales woman, two years later we were moving in our own home.
Time passed and she was so good at what she did, an American company had hunted her for and international position, she was doing well, we were doing well. My brother was happy, I was starting to go to school and getting Physio at my home in the afternoons. Then, she heard about a doctor that was willing to do a surgery that doctors here weren't doing because it was too risky. It turned out that this doctor was in Cuba. So to Cuba we went (my mom and I), it was supposed to be only for one month, but we stayed for a year, as one of my bones after surgery didn't fused back. Jose, my brother had to stay in Peru to attend school, I now know that that was the most difficult decision my mom ever made, we were inseparable, but life had other plans.
While in Cuba, my mom was my mom, my friend, caretaker 24/7, my punching pillow for when treatment got too hard and my biting "toy" for when inyections got too painful. Apart from all of that, my mom, was still our only income bringer, Jose was still in Peru and his bills had to be paid and we were in Cuba and our bills had to be paid, as I told you, she was making comissions which meant if she didn't work, money would not come, and so she worked. Imagine my mom in Cuba, getting up at 4 am to cook us lunch to take to the hospital where we were from 6 am to 6 pm from Monday to Friday,with no internet in the world at that time and limited calls trying to make sales back in Peru, well once more she did it, and in fact she closed one of her biggest clients from there. That meant, treatment paid, bills paid and peace of mind to get on with my recovery.
Cuba was over, and we were back in Peru.
Yep! And another decision time for mom. "Misha, you are not going back to school". We had a Cuban Physio come back with us to work with me from 7 am till 2 pm from Monday to Friday and I was alright with it because mama always knew best.
At the time we, as a family, were needing more, more time together and more money.
So she did what had to be done, she started her own business operation around South America with another American company. She travelled a lot, in one week she could be in three countries not counting Peru, Peru was for the weekends or nightly stopovers. I remember her once getting from Ecuador at 11 pm and leaving the next morning to Brazil at 5 am. When I asked her why she didn't just take a plane straight from one place to the other, she said to me with her big blue-green eyes "Coz I wouldn't be able to kiss you". That stop that cost her much needed rest time was all worth for one kiss from us.
Time passed, I eventually went back to school and then university and so did Jose, Mom bought another home, got married to a wonderful man, she still works and does whatever she sets her mind up to.
She achieved what she dreamed, she made me walk, she gave us both degrees, a strong family and lots and lots of good example of the power of will.
Mom stills runs when either Jose or I need help, she still pops into our home to just give us kiss, she is still my best friend, my mom, my biggest fan and my hero.
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