“I never want to see you guys struggle like me. I’m always here for you guys.” My mom says over the summer while my sister ditches us for her friends and then off to college. My mom is hard working, funny, mostly happy, stressed about the challenges life gives her, but inspirational. My mom is short, has long brown hair, brown eyes, and she’s short. My mom struggles a lot with everything in life but she gets through everything. She works hard for her kids and for herself. My mom gets through her struggles by herself but helps my siblings and I with our’s.

When you look at my mom, she looks young and beautiful for her age of forty two . With her long wavy hair and all her bling, but nobody will think that she doesn’t have a ring. She got divorced when I was about two and my sister was about five and my mom was pregnant with my little brother. I remember everyday she would cry and she told me to cuddle with her and make her happy because almost everything my father told her was a lie. My mom was stressed out because she didn’t have a job all she did was lay down and sob. She had two kids and one on the way, and she asked me, “Why did he have to leave us and go away?” Everyday I asked, “Where’s dad?” My mom always replied with, “he’s at work.” I thought he would come back so I just walked away and gave her a smirk. She had to get a job to support us, she only had two years of college education. My mom got a job as an accountant working eight hours a day behind a desk and she never had time for us to go out and play. Despite all the work, she took as much time as she could just to cook for us and tuck us in bed and to say how much she loves us and kisses us on the head. My mom got through her divorce with us and working all the time and we were too young to understand so my mom told us, “pray to god so he can lend us a hand.”

My mom’s biggest fear is being in a huge car accident. I was about five and my mom drove us to Mexico for vacation with our grandparents. It was our last day there and we were going to one of my aunt’s house to say goodbye. As we were turning in, a semi truck hit us really hard and it really caught us off guard. Our van flipped 4 times all our luggage fell out and people stole them just to sell them for a few dimes. The truck hit us by surprise and as we were flipping my life flashed right before my eyes. We all got injured I got cuts on my back and both of my thighs. It felt so long when we were flipping, when it finally stopped, all inside the car blood was dripping. My brother, sister and I were all crying we were all in pain and it felt like we were dying. We landed upside down and as my grandpa stood up he was feeling his ribs and his right leg limping, but he still managed to kick the windshield out to go out through. He pulled my grandma out but she wasn’t crying, she didn’t even say a word I didn’t know what that was all about. My mom finally stood up looking for us, she had a bloody head, almost her whole body was red. she yelled out, “Where are my kids?!” She finally found us under all this debris and pulled us out so our bodies were free. The van caught on fire so we had to hurry and flee. My mom was so mad at the driver, she wanted to brawl. The truck driver was driving while he was drinking alcohol so my mom gave the police a call. The driver was fat and tall, fat like a meatball he wanted to run away but my mom put him on the ground so he couldn’t run but crawl. The police finally came and in the end the whole accident was on my mom to blame because she beat the driver up like in a video game. After that we went to the hospital and we were all separated I was so scared I saw my brother get taken away and he just disappeared in the crowd and the image of him was faded. I was in a room alone with two nurses they were checking and cleaning me and they asked me what happened. I didn’t know much spanish so I replied with “no se” That day my mom showed her braveness and saved me from a car that was going to catch on fire with my siblings and I inside. Now I see her as my hero.

We’ve all lost someone by a death, it’s so sad and scary it will take your breath. When my cousin died my mom was there for me, it couldn’t be true, it really couldn’t be. Her name was Mia she was only nine years old and every week I would play with her, her favorite thing to do was to play with chalk on the driveway. My mom would hug me every second, she was stuck to me like clay. My mom said to me, “love someone as much as you can every single day because you never know when they will pass away.” I guess it hit me the hardest because she drown last year on my birthday, but at least I got to say one last goodbye two days before when I took her out to play. My mom would be over protective watching our every move like a detective she said, “you’re not leaving this family in any way. I will protect you no matter how old you are.” Now I stay at home a lot like I’m held captive. I don’t like it because I can barely go out with my friends and be active. Everyday she tells me that she loves me in any way, and she gives me a hug and a kiss before I go to school and leave . Sometimes I tell my mom I miss her, so she gives me a big hug and its nice and warm like fur. Then she tells me a story, “Don’t ever forget Mia and you better pray to god for her. Now she’s our little angel watching over us and I know she will protect us from evil. No matter how young and small she is she will protect us. Now wipe those tears and go clean up.” That’s why I love my mom she always knows what to say no matter what time of day. Her and I make the best duo, we are always ready to go for all the challenges that life gives us.

My mom has been through it all, But it made her the strongest person. My mom knows what she does to us, she treats us right and therefore we hardly fight. She’s the main reason I’m inspired to keep pushing through the challenges that life gives me. My mom is always protecting me and I will protect her because she’s always been there for me and I want to return the favor. She learns how to be the most supportive mom from raising me but I learned to always take challenges that life gives you, never back down, and be brave for other people. All from the single survivor.