Appreciating our grandparents

It was sheer determination and pure unconditional love that my grandmother had lived upon as a single mother of four. Life was very difficult and life was indeed challenging.

Nonetheless, my grandmother stood by her principles firmly and went through the adversities of life accompanied with a positive mindset and a sense of self reliance.

Unlike her other ten siblings, my grandmother was not given the privilege to go to school. Till this very day, her only regret in life was that she was unable to attend school. Those rough hands which served her well, collecting latex and such, she felt, failed her greatly because she could not write. At eighteen, my grandmother got married. By twenty, she conceived her first child, at that time; she was already a single mother. She was the sole breadwinner of the family. Since she could not guide my father in his studies, she did all she could to keep food on the table and provide shelter. She felt that was the least she could do. She only worked as a cleaner at factories and sometimes she would bake cakes and sell to earn extra wage for the family. She re-married and had three other sons later on. She made sure all her sons did not lose out in education and she provided the best she could for all four of them. She would rather starve than not pay her sons’ school fess. She sacrificed a lot for the family.

Due to her sheer determination and love for her sons, she could not afford to neglect them. Thus they received the best of what she could offer as a mother. Now, all four sons are successful in life and all are financially stable. When my father got promoted last month to a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army, I could see the tears of joy in my grandmother’s eyes. I knew then she had not regretted working very hard so that her sons would have a better life than she did.

My father constantly reminds our family to never neglect or find my grandmother a burden. He would reprimand us for getting agitated when my grandmother requests for things to be done. What she has sacrificed for the family can never be compared to anything. Therefore, I learn to treasure and am grateful to my grandmother. She has taught me tones of valuable lessons and I will not take her for granted. My grandmother is my role model for she is the figure of determination and love. I love you grandma.