Amazing things your parents have done.

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[Post New]02/10/2010 11:34
Anonymous
Time to brag.
My mother raised 8 kids and never complained, not once.
She is 80, and over the phone, she talked me through, step by step, how to fold a paper boat for ds. DS saw one in school and just had to have one that minute. I forgot how to make them, she used to make them for us all the time as children. I still can't believe that you could give such clear, detailed, complex instructions at her age.

Eighty year old father in law talked me through some strange problem with my computer. That was also very impressive.
[Post New]02/10/2010 11:43
zumbamama
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My mom helped found a charity organization to help save the Philippines, her life's mission.

My Dad helped build the big Chinese bridge thing that goes across the street in Chinatown. I should know what it's called, but can't think of the word.

[Post New]02/10/2010 12:15
Anonymous
Mother in law lived for 20 years with Parkinsons disease
[Post New]02/10/2010 12:34
Anonymous
My mother survived a rape and continued the resulting pregnancy, having and raising the baby. Even when everyone turned their back on her because they thought the baby was from infidelity.

My father raised the baby, my sister, as his own. Even when everyone criticized him because they didn't know the circumstances.
[Post New]02/10/2010 12:37
Anonymous
My mom raised my brother and I by herself. That may not seem like a big deal but it is to me as I am now a single mother myself. Her parents helped her as much as they could and she is helping me now.
[Post New]02/10/2010 12:38
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:My mother survived a rape and continued the resulting pregnancy, having and raising the baby. Even when everyone turned their back on her because they thought the baby was from infidelity.

My father raised the baby, my sister, as his own. Even when everyone criticized him because they didn't know the circumstances.



Geez. That is love.
[Post New]02/10/2010 13:11
Anonymous
My parents alienated me and turned my brother into a pathetic 41-year-old shut in who both hates them and lives with them.

My amazing maternal grandparents on the other hand:
--grandmother survived the Holocaust
--grandfather saved her from certain death at the hands of the SS and hid her successfully for two years
--both made it to US after the war and raised three kids while grandfather worked in a doll factory even though he had a PhD, then he finally got an engineering job
--grandmother taught swimming six days per week for the 20 years before she died of brain cancer at age 79.

And paternal grandparents:
--grandmother survived WWI in Poland, including in a refugee camp where she lost the hearing in one ear due to an untreated infection
--grandfather translated an 8th-grade education (furthest anyone in his family had gotten) and a background in Brooklyn housing projects to a successful business and middle class life
--Grandfather lived to 92; grandmother still going strong at 96, at least as of Sunday when I visited her. Every day is precious.

For the life of me, I can't figure out how these heroic people ended up with such horrendous and cruel kids, but I know it's not their fault and I'm grateful for every second I had with them.
[Post New]02/10/2010 13:14
Anonymous
My mom, SAH since kids were born (18yrs) and then my dad cheated and dumped her. He then dumped his job and completely left her without any financial support, and a pile of debt, he chose jail over child support. I was 18, and my siblings were 5 years younger (twins). She worked at a department store supporting them 12hrs a day on a paltry income. She literally clawed her way out of a financial hole and after having her life turned upsidown, managed to come out of it infinantly more confident and able to take care of herself. She showed us you don't "need" a man and to never be dependant on one, because your life can change in a flash.
[Post New]02/10/2010 13:18
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:My mother survived a rape and continued the resulting pregnancy, having and raising the baby. Even when everyone turned their back on her because they thought the baby was from infidelity.

My father raised the baby, my sister, as his own. Even when everyone criticized him because they didn't know the circumstances.


I admire your parents so much. I hope that your sister (and you) didn't suffer too much as a result of her origins.
[Post New]02/10/2010 13:21
Anonymous
My mom suffered from crippling anxiety which she tried to keep hidden from everyone. On one hand, it made it very difficult for me to understand how to deal with my own anxiety and I wish she hadn't tried to hide it. On the other hand, for such an anxious person she traveled all over the world. Went to El Salvador with her church refugee committee after the civil war. Went to Egypt after the terrorist attack at Luxor. Her last trip before she died was to Iran. Not that there was anything to fear for a normal person in Iran when she went in the 90s but for your average US middle class woman born in 1929, it was pretty unusual.
[Post New]02/10/2010 13:33
Anonymous


Ww, great stories! Is someone writing a book? There was another thread about people's ethnicity.
[Post New]02/10/2010 13:50
Anonymous
zumbamama wrote:My mom helped found a charity organization to help save the Philippines, her life's mission.

My Dad helped build the big Chinese bridge thing that goes across the street in Chinatown. I should know what it's called, but can't think of the word.



The "Friendship Archway." Very cool. Worked down there for years and admired it every day.
[Post New]02/10/2010 13:57
Anonymous
my father gave up everything he had to regain custody of 4 kids, in the 70's. Not an easy thing to do at the time.
[Post New]02/10/2010 14:00
Anonymous
My mom was a refugee during WW2 in Europe. They had to leave their native country for another to get away from German and Russian troops who routinely stole, raped, etc in their region. She saw all kinds of death, destruction, the worst and best of humanity. I can't imagine leaving all my "stuff" behind to start a new life, but at least her whole family lived through the war. My dad left his native country (now communist) at 19 just after WW2 and became a US soldier, never seeing his family of origin again for over 40 years (his sister was a teenager when he left, and when he saw her again she was a grandmother). He came here with nothing, and became a successful business man.
[Post New]02/10/2010 14:11
Anonymous
My parents (from a former communist country) gave their life savings to pay for my first year of college in the States. I went on to get a full scholarship and eventually a Ph.D. from MIT.
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