I will forever be grateful to mom and her name will always ring in my memory. Her name makes me cry and laugh at the same time. I love my mom and always will. My mom`s name is Juraci Pinto da Silva and she is a strong woman that has been through a lot. My mom has superpowers – the power to love, the power to understand, the power to sacrifice and to give everything that she has. I remember many times we wouldn`t have food or enough food and I remember she would sacrifice her own food for her us. She would give the last portion of rice and she would assure me that she was very full but today thinking back I know she was hungry and she needed to eat but she gave to me or my brothers and sisters.
I think my mom is very patient because she is still living with my father but now there are couple of months that she filed the papers to divorce my father but she is doing that through public service so it will take very long time, my mom is also very humble, caring, carefree and God-fearing.
My mom didn`t grow up in a city with big buildings but she grew up in the rural area and she tells me that she loved that life because life was very simple and you didn`t have a lot of things to worry about. My grandfather married early but he lost his wife because of diseases, then he married again but lost his wife again and then he married the sister of the second wife that died. He has had so many kids and most of them are still alive. He has had more than a dozen of kids and my mom is one of oldest. My mom just like my father didn`t study that much because in the rural area there wasn`t higher level of education. My mom says she would had loved to study more but it was not possible. My grandfather had a big land with a lot of acres and they used to have animals, plantations, a lot of fruit trees, water fountains and horses, cows, etc.
My mom grew up learning how to cook for her mom and take care of the house. My mom tells me some really fun, interesting and exciting stories of her childhood. She tells me stories of when she would steal oranges, bananas, berries with her friends just for fun on the way back from school. My mom grew up with a very innocent childhood and she had a fairy-tale of someday a prince was going to come and rescue her but instead of a prince came someone else. My mom tells me that when she was growing up it was hard for them even to see a car or television because they were living so removed from the city and all those things like car seemed like a dream to be near or even touch someday.
My mom tells me stories of how she and her family would walk for hours to get to a family`s house that had a small Television so they could watch the evening soap-opera or movies. She tells me to have a television back then it was a luxury thing and she used to love to watch the television and she would watch the soap-operas and she would image of someday being married and having her kids .
She tells me that everyone around her would be so afraid to get old and not get married so they would get married very early in their teens and back then it was completely ok. So all my aunties got married very early and my mom too. My mom got married in her teens and she tells me that she didn`t really love my father but she just wanted to get married to get away from home. She didn`t want to stay home until she would be older.
My mom got married and moved to the city and that`s when her life was changed completely from an innocent life to an abusive life. My mom tells me that when she was pregnant with all of us but I mean and especially with me my father used to kick her stomach and belly and he used to scream horrible names. She tells me that my father used to beat her down with pieces of woods, sticks and with his fists in her stomach and many times she thought she was going to lose one of us when she was pregnant. She tells me that my father used to choke her neck when she was pregnant and he would force her to carry for miles carrying woods for the fire because she didn`t have stove to cook with or get water from far away.
My mom has always been Christian and she tells me that when she was a teenager she started going to church and she has always been a member of a Pentecostal denomination called Assemblies of God here in Brazil. The Assemblies of God here in Brazil back then and still today most of them demand their members to wear long skirts and they can`t have their hair cut, trimmed, died and there are other little things like you can`t watch television or the guys can`t play soccer or can`t wear shorts. I think it`s so funny because we are a nation that is crazy about soccer and The Assemblies of God don`t allow the guys to play soccer. I remember when I was a little boy I used to feel like I was sinning by playing soccer or wearing shorts. Since I was little I never really liked those rules but I would go because my mom would tell me so.
My mom is a woman of faith and for me I think she is the greatest woman ever lived and will ever live. She is a woman of faith and forgiveness. I remember days and nights when I would see my mom kneeled down with her face down praying for God to save her children. I remember she used to tell me someday I was going to preach the Gospel and I was going to serve God. She used to call things that didn`t exist like they existed. She used to say that someday I was going to be serving God and today I am. Praise the Lord for my mom!!!
She has never given up either. I bet she has thought so many times to give up but she hasn`t. She had three of her kids running away from home and never coming back and she still never gave up. Even when my oldest sister ran away for a week she still didn`t give. She has been beaten, choked, slapped and she has heard many but I mean I think every bad word from my father and she is still standing and following Jesus.
My mom lost a son when he was just a babe and I never really know what really happened. I keep asking her for the whole story but she only tells me that my brother when he was just an infant and he died in the hospital without being able to breathe. I always try to get more information from her about my brother and I always feel she avoids that topic. I feel there is another part of the story that hasn`t been told and she doesn`t want us to know what really happened. She never mentions my brother that died and it seems like it is too painful to talk about it. But She is still standing and going.
She is a fighter and she will always be in my heart. She has fought for me and she is the greatest example of my life. She has taught me about forgiveness and love. She has always loved me and her love is so genuine and real that is hard to find anywhere I go. I love my mom and she is the most amazing and incredible woman in my life and history. Thank you God for mom and what she has done for me.
No comments:
Post a Comment