A Woman of Great Resilience: A Role Model

By Anna Ram ~ A testimony of courage and resilience about Anna’s mom.

On this International Women’s Day, I honor my mother Maria and remember her with admiration. When I think of RESILIENCE, I think of my mother’s outstanding life and I want to honor her publicly on this important day.

My mother since she was a child was a sister and daughter who made great contributions to her family. Later, she became a great wife to my father for over 60 years and together they raised 7 children. My parents were quite an inspiring couple, who supported each other.  I have to admit that “7 children” is a lot of children for one woman to give birth and care for, but in the old days, they seemed to enjoy larger families and family planning was not a big issue. (I can’t complain, otherwise I wouldn’t have been born, nor would I be here). I also have fond memories of being part of a great family dynamics as we grew up.

I remember many good things about her. But the time of deeper connection was when she liked to comb my hair, to sing songs in a duet, to read the Bible, tell stories and say prayers, and to assist me in my elementary schoolwork, as she expressed great satisfaction for giving all her children the access to education. She always told her children, “I want you to go beyond what I couldn’t accomplish on my own.” Her vision for her children was that we would pursue studies and become professionals and thus prosper and excel beyond what she could not achieve in her time. And we succeeded. Therefore, both parents took pride in our accomplishments.

His vision for the future produced good children with faith, ethical values and responsibility. Their children became professionals: (engineers, business administrators, psychologists, musicians, entrepreneurs, and business owners.) We were also able to send our children even further than us, transcending those ethical values to the next generations. The support, respect, and trust that my father placed in our mother was also fundamental for her development. He was not an obstacle to her dreams and potential; he was a cheerleader, not feeling intimidated by a strong and yet, caring woman.

Maria displayed a firm, genuine, and unwavering Christian faith like no other. She had an enduring tenacity to work managing a large home for her entire family in parallel to her businesses. She also participated in her community with financial generosity and service to schools and the church.  She procured to be available for the important things in her world and was highly respected by everyone. My father always supported her in all her ventures, as she supported him in all his businesses. Although my mother was outgoing, diligent, and enterprising, I never saw a power struggle dynamic between the two for that matter, except when a parenting correction was necessary. (each child brought their own package of problems). But both parents were equally responsible, building together their vision, their life project.

My parents were not perfect, no  parent is, since raising good children is complicated. But they respected each other without competition among themselves. She modeled her children’s respect for our father, and he loved her so deeply. This is how I remember my loving and caring mother, a great example of life.