I think about this every.single.day. Serious question how many people do you know in real life that have accomplished this?
My mom! She was born to a poor tenant farmer in the middle of a blizzard in Montana in the depth of the great Depression. She grew up poor and married young to escape her home life with her narcissistic mom. The guy she married turned out to be an alcoholic. She came out to California to live with her older sister and work and she started dating her boss. She got pregnant and had to get a quickie Mexican divorce to marry my father (didn't learn this until I was an adult, never discussed it with her). She had 4 kids and went to night school in the 1960's to earn her bachelor's degree (first in her large family to get a college degree).She finally got her bachelor's degree when I was 14 and 3 months later my father died of an unexpected heart attack, leaving her a widow with 4 children. She experienced sex discrimination and later age discrimination in her working life.
She struggled financially, teaching in a poor-paying Catholic school job because she couldn't take the unpaid time to student teach to get her credential. She remarried because society told her the kids had to have a father - this man turned out to have terrible problems with chronic depression. The marriage wasn't happy and she divorced after ten years. Because her house had increased considerably in value during these years and we live in a community property state, she had to sell our home o give him his share when she divorced.
She went to work as a bookkeeper because she could make more money than teaching in the Catholic school. (My father was a CPA). After a few years she sat for the CPA exam and passed all parts the first time (something only 4% of people do, and she didn't even have an accounting degree!). She worked as a CPA until she retired in her 60's. She moved to live near me and my kids and my ex and I helped her buy a small house which we renovated. She volunteered in the local library and eventually they MADE her apply for a paid position. She worked until she was 85 as an assistant librarian 20 hours a week, probably her favorite job.
She only had a modest Social Security check and small savings for her retirement, but the extra money from that job allowed her to take me and my sister on several trips. We went to London, Paris, Rome, Italy, Ireland and Scotland, Canada, the East Coast. Places my mom NEVER dreamed in her life that she would get to see.
My mom never whined or complained about her life. She was shy and introverted but kept putting one foot in front of the other. She always made room for anybody who needed to stay or join us for dinner. She always had our back and we all knew we could always turn to her for help. At various points in our lives she took in each of us four kids as adults. She had a good sense of humor and loved music.
When she died suddenly last fall, we all celebrated her life and all that she had done. On her tombstone we put "Nevertheless, She Persisted". She was dealt a lot of bad hands but she kept putting one foot in front of the other and in the end, she had a pretty good life and was much beloved.
