When we started this unique promotion for Mother’s Day we didn’t expect that you will write such honest and heartbreaking stories. Because of that, it was a hard job for us to chose the best three. Once again, we want to thank you for sharing with us the most intimate parts of your lives. Also, we decided to dedicate this post to the best three stories honoring mothers and motherhood.
1st place
My mom stopped drinking and entered 12 step program when she got pregnant with me. She calls me her miracle baby for that reason, but honestly, my mom is the miracle to everyone that meets her. She gives and loves unconditionally to every soul she meets, whether it means giving you three huge overstuffed bags of groceries from her own fridge and cupboards if you say you can’t afford groceries or if you need a ride somewhere or simply to talk to her for hours while she listens. Growing up, she was an Alateen sponsor and became everyone’s mom, driving all of the Alateens to meetings, helping them learn to do service work, and planning the conventions like March Round-Up. To this day a huge number of 35-year-olds and younger call her “Mom” because she was their mom when their own parents were trying (or failing to) get sober. She let our friends stay at our house and would take them to school because even though our house wasn’t perfect it was often safer than their own. Today she works as a substance abuse counselor and teaches about addiction at schools. No matter what I do wrong or fail at in life, she is there to tell me “this, too, shall pass.” She is a warrior that has been through everything you can possibly think of, and instead of it making her hard, cold, and bitter – she has become the kindest, most forgiving person I have ever met. If I am even 1% of what my mom is like at the end of my life, I know I’ve become a good person. And even if I am not that 1% as loving as she is at the end of the road, it will not matter. Because I am able to love myself because SHE has loved me so well. Caitlin
2nd place
A POEM FOR MY MOM
Hey, Mom. Happy Mothers Day.
Though we’ve grown apart,
I can’t let you go. No Way.
Love stayed from the start.
I think of you each day made.
I see you in me.
Between things said and unsaid,
Love can waste away.
You may not get why I try.
It makes me Happy.
Its truth that stays inside.
Because I feel you in me.
I hope you see it someday.
Why I chose my way.
As Love Is Faced Everyway,
Yours will always stay.
Don’t let it hurt you. Okay?
Trust is hard to break.
So long as you choose to weigh
Love more than we take.
Of course, I must include
the word of the day.
I always “peregrinate”
back to you. To stay,
Humble and kind. like you stay.
Lessons have a way
of pushing me to portray
what you gave to me
-A_L.I.F.E
I wrote this for my mom last years mothers day. Yet I’m unable to know if shes yet read it. A little back story with this; I’m a transexual. Male to female. Though my family is not accepting of me, I can’t help but miss my mom with a passion. My mom and I were very close. She pushed me to do good in school and she said I inspired her to go back to school. She’s now a teacher in an elementary school. She graduated Summa Cum Laude. All on her own. I remember her staying up late hours working on her school work. And I would do my best to help her prepare for any upcoming texts just like she helped me with mine. The part where I say, you may not know why I try, it makes me happy, I’m telling her what she always told me, “the only way to be happy is to try. I’m also, slightly explaining why I continue to reach out to her every special occasion. She may not like to hear from me but I know she loves me and I know she loves to hear from me. There’s just a barrier between the two of us that can only be a breach if we both try. and I hope she finds it in herself to try someday. She’s a strong-willed person. A Taurus. a scholar. and one person who can take the fall for someone without falling. she very kind-hearted to the sole. and though she is also tough, she never bulls over other people. She is all I needed to learn how to be humble. how to let others have the last words. and shes a core strength inside of me every day of my life. I’m not as beautiful as she is. and though I’m not naturally a woman, most people who know me say they feel warm and comfortable, like they are with a mother. So I’m fortunate to have her mom qualities because it helped many people in ways that I don’t always know why or how. Also, the part with the word of the day is a continued this me and she once had together. we would always try to use the word of the day in a sentence and by the end of the week, we would challenge each other to use them all in conversation without lying. lots of times she would do better. Since we’ve parted I’ve challenged myself to use the word of the day in a poem. Lastly, I changed my name to Alife. Its because that’s truly what she gave me and I don’t want anything more than for people to learn that my life is who I am. not my name.
Love you, Mom, always.
3rd place
To really be a parent you have to be selfless, patient and oh so very strong. As a kid I was rebellious. I ran away from home and did things I am not proud of. I was acting out from the pain that I was feeling from my biological father signing his rights away from me. As a parent, we are blamed for everything and I blamed her for him not wanting me anymore. My mom was a single mother working full time and finishing her degree. We lived in a one bedroom apartment and our big treat was Sunday breakfast at McDonald’s. To some that is not much but to me those memories mean the world. It wasn’t until I had my children that I realized just how hard being a mother is. I have felt the pain of losing a child to the world you try to protect them from but I was blessed to have her for the 13 years that I did. I now know what it is like to have boys who think they are 10 feet tall and bulletproof and no matter what you tell them they are still going to make their own choices and deal with the consequences that follow. I know what it is like to work fulltime while going to school for psychology and being exhausted but doing it all to provide a better life for the children I brought in this world. My mother is the most amazing women that I know and I can only hope to be half of what she is. I let her know all the time how grateful I am for her and everything that she has done in my life and I thank her for never giving up on me. I also thank God every day for blessing me with a mom that I needed not a Disneyland mom. A mother is supposed to teach us and guide us and prepare us for the world and she did more than that and I am the women I am today because she was the mother she was. To all the mothers out there I wish you all the very best mothers day because being a parent is not easy but there is no greater joy. Cassandra
Congratulations to our winners and big thanks for everyone who took part in this Mother’s Day promotion!