Personal Narrative: My Mother

Kaylin Knops
Ms. McCleaf
Written Communication I—11977
14 September 2013
1st draft
1000 words
She Has Courage My mother, Christine, epitomizes the heroic quality of courage in that she grew up without a mother of her own, and now she is a single mother and she struggles on a constant basis to conquer depression.
One day my mom came home from school and all her stuff was on the front lawn. Her mom kicked her out and didn’t want to raise her anymore. She was only 8-years-old. She moved in with her father and he raised her. Growing up she had no one to talk to about boys, problems in her life, and puberty. She got courage when she saw her dad struggling to raise her. She wanted to make it easy on him. She did well in school and
didn’t get into trouble. She kept herself busy by hanging out with her friends. She knew she had other family around her that loved her. She feels like she would not be as strong as a woman today, if her mother would have raised her. She is very thankful for her father raising her and being the mother and the father. Growing up without her mom, she knew she would want to be the greatest mom she could be. She always wanted to be there for her kids and never leave them. Her and her mother have a very good relationship now. My mother forgave her mother because she knew she could not hold it over her head for leaving her.
Christine’s plan was to get married and have a beautiful family.
It did not quite happen that way. She found herself pregnant at the age of 22 the she married my father while she was pregnant with me. She became pregnant again with my sister at 24 years old. After my sister was born we moved to North Carolina. My parents got a divorced after being married for 6 years. She found herself as a single mother, something she never thought would happen to her. My dad was there for my sister and I when he could be. Once we moved back to Florida he wasn’t there for us as much. My mother got the courage cause she knew she did not want to fallow her own mothers footsteps and just give up on her kids. At one point she worked two jobs and went to school. Also she managed to take care of her two girls and herself. She took us to school, friends, do things with us, and took me to gymnastics and my sister to soccer. She reconnected with her high school sweetheart 3 years after we moved back to Florida. After 11 days they were married and a month later my mother was pregnant with my brother. My mom and step dad were married for a 2 years before they got a divorce. Toward the end of their marriage my mom found out my step dad had a problem with alcohol and drugs. She got to courage to kick him out of the house. She knew she had to because of her kids. She did not want us around those things. She had to build the courage and stay strong for her kids and herself. She enjoys being a single
mother; she would not change it for anything in the world. Her children are her whole world.
She found herself in a depressed state when we lived in North Carolina.
She knew something was wrong when all she did was take my sister and I to school. After she took us to school she would sleep all day until it was time to pick us up from school. After she picked us up she would go to work. She would do this for weeks; she knew something was not right about what she was doing. She got the courage to know she was miserable while we lived in North Carolina. She knew she had to get out of there and wanted to move back to Florida. She also wanted my sister and I to move back to Florida to be closer and know our great grandma. She finally felt happy once we moved to Florida. She had the stress off of being a single mom. She knew she had family around her to help her with her girls. After she got divorced from my step dad, she fell back into depression. He was the love of her life and finally thought she could have a family. He was an alcoholic and she could not let her kids be around that. She got the courage to not let that bring her down. She knew she had to pick her head up and move forward and raise her kids and take care of herself. She fell back into depression again after she found out her grandmother had lung cancer. During that time her husband had a blood clot in his leg, he had to have bypass surgery. She started taking antianxiety medication because she was under so much pressure. Her grandma was in the hospital for a few days then they moved her to hospice. The
doctors gave her months to live; she passed away six weeks later. My mom was holding my great grandma when she past away in November 2005. After she passed away her father got hit by a drunk driver in Costa Rica. He was fine but he broke his leg. Also her step mom died from cancer in March of 2006. Needless to say she was in the deepest state of depression she had ever been in. One day her brother came over to check on her. She was sleeping on the couch and my 2-year-old brother at the time was crawling all over my mom. My sister needed to go to the library to do a report for school. My mom asked her brother if she could take her and he said, “No, you need to get up and do it yourself.” “You need to stop feeling sorry for yourself, grandma would not want you to act like this.” “You have three kids to raise.” My mom thought to herself he is right; I need to pick myself up and build up the courage to raise my kids. She knew she had to keep going on with life.
Christine never thought her life would turn out this way. Her not growing up with her mother, she became a stronger women, she became a wonderful single mother, and she is coutnuing to over come depression.

Works Cited
McFadden, Christine. Personal interview 10 Sept. 2013