My mother passed a way almost 25 years ago - so my memories are distant. She worked very hard to keep our family together when things were not going well with my father. Thankfully they reconciled before her passing.

My mom is the type who never stops moving; you never see her sit down during the day, she's always going and going, cleaning and doing and crafting and gardening and taking care of everyone. She gives and gives until I know it sometimes hurts her.

That alone is enough to make her my hero.

She's also been with my dad for 50 years. They've been together since she was 13 years old. She showed me exactly how *it's done*, how to stick through the good and the bad and make a relationship work.

I'm proud of her. I love her so much it makes my heart squeeze. She's my best friend.

I am very inspired by my mother's creativity. She is so skilled with her hands. I could watch her paint, or bake, or tinker in the garden for hours as a kid. I still do that now.

It wasn't until my parents divorced that I truly became inspired by her. I was 13 at the time, and she was suddenly a single mother of three. There were nights where we sat on the kitchen floor of the house she bought for the four of us, a sanctuary of her independence, if you will. And on that kitchen floor, my mother would ball her eyes out over all of the stress, and I let her open up about the things that she had been feeling about my dad for years, and about all the things she wanted for herself and for us.

She stopped being MOM, and became human. She had doubts, and fears, and worries; but she also had strength, courage, and the will to live the life she knew she deserved, even if the road to get there was full of briars and pitfalls. And, she chose not to struggle through it alone. She realized that my shoulders could burden much more than she thought, and that I could be the best friend she truly needed at that time.

I went from 13 to 30 overnight, and while that might seem sad to some, it was the best thing that ever happened to me. And she saw it too, and she loved me for it, because it was exactly the type of woman she had worked so hard to be, and the one she always hoped I would become.

I was her maid of honor two years later, and outside of my own wedding day, it was the happiest day of my life. She didn't just deserve it, she EARNED it.

It is her ability to be a human, flawed and beautiful, imperfect and loving, emotional and rational that inspires me every day.

My own mother has been rather rotten to me and about me for the past 6 years, and I don't even know what I have done wrong to deserve such emotional abuse from her. It's mainly emotional, verbal, and very, VERY rarely physical. She would say it was a joke and of course every time she had a fit at me I break down in tears and my husband would be telling her to eff off.

I had taken two years of it until I met my husbands mother, who instantly took me under her wing when she realized I younger than HER youngest, and only a few years older than her oldest niece. She's treated me like a daughter so much more than my own mother that I consider her a second mother.

I have another woman in my life whose my third mother, someone else to run to when I really need it. She's always there for me no matter what time of day it is, I could call her at 1 in the morning if me or hubby is really sick.

I admire these two because they acted like the mother I never had in my life, I'm very attached to them both, and consider my mother-in-law to be my actual mother.

My mom is almost like a fictional perfect mom....except she's real! Honest to god, she's a full time teaching-dinner cooking-birthday cake baking-dress shopping-soup simmering-clean the house-perfect manicure-perfect dye job-30 year strong marriage-loves her kids woman. I don't know how she does it. I owe her so much, and barely even know where to begin to start repaying her for everything.

(by the way, my dad is the same way! It's crazy when I really think about it. I got so lucky.)

shes my bf

Wow--you guys are making me cry, the love and affection in your letters and the wonderful and amazing mothers in your lives is very uplifting!! This is very inspirational and happy thread, thank you all for posting---lets keep it up!!

I don't have just one special memory, I'm lucky to have plenty. I have a great mother and had a great father. She accepts me, helps me through every one of life's problems, and would never abandon me. She's been through a lot of tough crap and has pulled through; she's very strong.

My mother is kick ass. And, she is always right. Unless she's wrong, but she can at least admit when she is not that right. (Not just talking about mental stability here either...) And she has a very strange and hilarious sense of humour.

In some ways, in the past two years, it really seems as if she has come into her own, and really has started to discover what makes her tick. She had never just been her before. She was a daughter, then a wife, then a mother, then a wife again once all her children became more independent. She'd never learnt how important it was to be independent in so many various ways until my dad passed away. To watch her grow, to listen to my sister complain about how opinionated and stubborn she has become... I beam with pride.

She stuck it through her marriage, the good and the bad. She survived raising four daughters (how she survived our going through puberty, I'll never know), is turning sixty soon but has no grey hair and looks maybe 45-50ish.

She's become one of my best friends, someone whom I enjoy spending time with, someone who is just a really amazing person. What makes her special is that she is just human. No more and no less than anyone else. She puts on no airs and has stopped trying to make everyone around her happy. She is now just trying to learn what makes her happy.

The one most significant mother figure in my life was my Nana. She was by far the most sweetest most caring and giving person that I have ever met. She always seemed to have this air about her that just let you know that she had struggled and made it through life. Even as a child I knew she was someone special and I would just sit and listen to her stories for hours and hours. She passed away about 5 months ago and it was an extremely defining moment in my life. I struggle with the way she passed which seemed extremely cruel and horrific for someone that was so good throughout her life. I've found comfort in her old pictures and those stories she entrusted to me many years ago.