(Narrated by the son)

“Nothing teaches one more about life and people than the onset of difficult phases. And the lady in frame- my mother, has only seen adversities for the longest time before her toil paid off and positioned all her eight children at respectable statures in life. Today our household is a well-built brick home that gave birth to a lawyer, civil surgeon, pediatrician, IFS officer, scientific officer, Ph.D. aspirant, and allied professionals, but things weren’t always this way!

You see, as a young wife hailing from a remote village in Salem, my mother moved to Chennai, with hopes and dreams of building a good life with our father. But little did she know, that she was conned into the marriage by a man, who promised her of being genuine and financially stable before exposing his true identity which was all things ill! Starting with a drinking spree, things quickly escalated to extramarital affairs from my father’s end, rendering my mother hopeless, with no support and eight hungry children to take care of.

Times were truly desperate, where my warrior mother did everything in our capacity to keep us alive. From cultivating and consuming only one type of food for months together to mortgaging every single one of her birth assets, to almost begging kind-hearted people for support, every day was a struggle. There were a million times when she would go hungry after working odd jobs for hours together!

However, despite the ongoing gloom, if there was one thing she was stubborn about, it was our education. From the start, she knew that if there was one thing that could free us from the shackles of poverty, it was definitely education. And she never compromised from sending us to good matriculation schools, though it was far from our affordability levels. Every semester, she would plead to the principal, who was gracious enough to understand our flair for studies and helped us in all ways possible.

Now, with time, every pearl of her sweat paid off, and each one of us eventually graduated and landing in jobs, thus strengtheing the family scenario. From neighbors looking at us with contempt, we all realized we made it when the same folks came to us with their children seeking career advice. And upgrading our once-fragile hut to a fully furnished home was another milestone that got our sibling set beaming with pride. We are eight children of god, well settled and looking to make a mark in our respective fields, all thanks to the persistence of our mother; She and my eldest sister, pushed through life, when it was the easiest to give up! Together they co-parented the entire family to success and I couldn’t be more grateful. As for our father, he returned a couple of times before reaching ultimately reaching the heavenly abode in silence. Going forward, all that I and we aspire is to make our iron lady, proud and happy. I guess she definitely deserves every bit of it!”

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