My mother’s legacy is already set in stone. She has lived an interesting life. At a young age, she left her home to live with her grandma and promised her mother when she passed that she would look after her five siblings. This was no ordinary task. She and her siblings left home and moved to the states with almost nothing to their names. As her sisters started to get married, she held off. I asked her why she waited so long to get married and she said:
Le prometí a mi madre que iba a cuidar mis hermanas y de ser el último en casar me era una parte de eso.
I promised my mother that I would take care of my siblings and being the last to get married was a part of it.
It’s this consistent selflessness that my mother has shown throughout her life that makes her special. When it came to my sister and I, we always came first. When I received my first C on a report card, she was in the counselor’s office every morning for weeks despite working graveyard shifts.
People say that a mother’s love is unconditional and for many this is might be true. But I can’t help but think my mom is one of kind. She has done everything a son could ask for while being the most beautiful. Ernest Hemingway said, “Courage is grace under pressure.” I couldn’t think of a better way of summing up my mother.
Victor Padron is a student at SJSU.
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