Dear Mom,
First and foremost, thank you.
Thank you for being as strong as you are. Not only were you able to come out of a divorce on top, you also continued to provide us with a beautiful home where we had garden to play in and a pool to jump into with all of our neighbours.
Thank you for taking us to the Disney on Ice show every March, and thank you for always taking us on amazing trips every June and December – the primary school me never got tired bout bragging about all the countries I’ve visited.
Although you’ve always been a bit of a workaholic, thank you for showing me what it means to work hard – you have truly exemplified amazing work ethic (my future employers will be glad).
Although I can’t say that I have a lot of memory you coming home early in the evenings to cook dinner or to watch TV with us, there was hardly ever a night that went by where you didn’t read a chapter of an Enid Blyton book to us each night before we went to bed.
Thank you for being brave.
When J (my ex-stepdad) got retrenched and you were the only one working, you decided to take a leap of faith and have us all move to Melbourne. Although we had No one there and it meant having to start all over again, you took up the challenge because you truly believed that we would all have a better future there. The then-13 year old me was overjoyed cause to me, it meant that my PSLE results didn’t matter and I would be able to collect all the different Lip Smacker flavours very easily.
Thank you for being so capable – All our lives, we had a helper in Singapore and when we moved to Melbourne, you suddenly you had to cook, clean, do the laundry and walk the dogs. And when you and J decided to buy over a café, I saw you slave over the stove every weekend. Could you imagine?
My whole life you’ve been the glamorous mom who tottered around in high heels and blown-out hair, and all my life, I’ve never seen you cook, and suddenly you were cooking for up to fifty tables, and customers were Always “sending compliments to the chef”.
Man, there is nothing you couldn’t do.
Now that I’m a mom myself, I can only hope to be half as strong, brave, and capable as you are for Jayden.
Love you always,
Chantal
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