By Julie Hendrix
Mom taught me many things, but it was her great example during the most impressionable time of my youth that makes me truly appreciate her and want to be more like her.

Years ago, due to economic circumstances, Dad lost his job. After many months of searching, he wasn’t able to find work in our home town. My parents had a hard decision to make.
After praying about what to do, they both decided to go back to school to earn their college degrees. At the time, they had seven children. I was the oldest and had just turned twelve years old when we left our home and moved to a small college town.

Dad had a few years of college already behind him and would graduate sooner than Mom. This situation created a problem because my parents realized that once he graduated, Dad would be forced to find a job in another town, leaving Mom to finish college all alone with the children. In order to keep our family together, Mom decided to push herself and work hard so that she could graduate in less than four years. She attended school year-round and at times carried as many as twenty-eight credits so that she could graduate with a four-year degree quickly.

Life wasn’t easy with both parents attending school full-time and trying to fulfill their roles as parents and providers. We all took on extra responsibilities in order for things to get done. But Mom’s incredible work ethic was our example.
Each morning, she would get up before the sun rose to make our lunches, then she would wake us up and hurry us off to school. After that, she would attend classes throughout the day while she and my dad traded off taking care of my younger siblings. In the evening, her routine consisted of helping the four older kids with their homework, bathing and caring for two toddlers and a baby, making dinner, cleaning the house, and finally doing her homework. Most nights she stayed up until two or three in the morning to finish term papers and study for tests.

There were even times when money was so scarce that she had to take on part-time jobs to make ends meet. I admired the fact that no job was beneath her as she worked alongside college-age students at fast food restaurants or cleaned motel rooms just so she could help provide for us.

Throughout the first year, Mom ran at full speed until she and my dad were in a car accident which left our only vehicle totaled and my mom badly injured. Over the next several weeks, she had to endure surgery on her shoulder and foot while she continued with her classes. During that semester, she hobbled around the college campus on crutches as she struggled to get caught up in her school work. But her spirit of optimism and endurance kept her going. She not only completed every course that semester, she made the dean’s list as well.

All through the next year, my parents continued to juggle taking care of the kids and attending school while making it possible for one of them to be home. But it soon was time for Dad to graduate and a job, four hours away, awaited him. This new challenge didn’t discourage Mom; she pushed forward, all alone with seven children, and finished her degree just six months after him. In all, she completed her teaching degree in two and a half years—with honors.

As I think back to those years, and reflect on Mother’s Day, I realize what kind of strength and qualities my mother possessed in order for her to accomplish so much in that short amount of time amidst great adversity. Even today, she continues to amaze me with her willpower to overcome any obstacle that comes her way. Her example and demonstration of her hard work, diligence, endurance, perseverance, and certainly long suffering has helped me to face any obstacle thus far in life. As I raise my own family, I work to emulate her same courage and spirit and pass on those same qualities to my children.

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