A Little Story From Yesterday

I have a story. A story about a woman whom I lived with, yesterday. I called her mother. A mother who is living alone without her husband. Her husband passed away long time ago. Mother lives with her three children. Two of them are boys and the other is a girl, and she is the oldest among all. They are about 21 and 19 years old, but I do not know how old the oldest one is. She is a tough woman.

Mother is now struggling to live her life and her children’s life. Her job is to sell some fried foods. Mother sells them on a little table in front of her house. Starting at 5 pm until 9.30 pm, Mother does her job. By this way, Mother can fulfill her daily needs. Somehow, it was not enough for her to be able to pay a senior high school fee for two of her children.

Nothing more Mother can do, but this job. Mother ever tried to be a scavenger. She picked some rubbish near a mill in the village. However, it resulted a very low income. Again, Mother also ever tried to be a labor in the farm, but it is still not enough. Then, her final job is to sell the fried foods. She had started it three years ago.

Yesterday, I was living in her house with one of my friends. We was trying to help her, at least to be someone who listened to her story. Many things we had done together. From frying the foods until selling them to the customers. Yesterday, we sold it quicker than usual. Going around and coming to the customers, it was the way we sold it. I saw a big smile on Mother’s face when she knew that everything we sold had ruined. This showed me that she felt so happy.

In the night before we slept, we had a time for sharing our story. I shared my story from my hometown, and she shared her story about her life since she married with father. So many challenges she had passed. So many stories we had shared at that time, and so many lesson I can get from her. “Every struggle will always give you result. No matter how big the result, you must always give your biggest struggle.” Indirectly, I got this lesson from Mother. After that, we went to sleep. She slept in her bedroom, and my friend and I slept using a mattress on the floor.

In the next morning, we woke up too late. We soon washed our face. At that time mother was not at home. She went to the market to buy some vegetables and the ingredients for making food that will be sold. We did not know what to do, until she came back from the market. Then, we decide to clean up the house. I cut up the grass around her house and picked the rubbish, and throw them to the river. There were no garbage, so river was the only place to throw the rubbish, and it was so dirty. What could we do else? There was not any accommodation from the government to support them for keeping clean the environment, while the society is financially disadvantage.

It was the last day we stayed there. Before my friend and I got back to dorm, we ask mother for a permission. She wished us to come back again someday to have some chats with her. We leaved some tools for her such as knife, garbage, broom, etc., and hoped it will be useful for her. Finally, we stepped out of her house. We were very glad, because of all the lesson and the experiences we got. She taught me to always give my biggest struggle to get everything I want. Thank you, mother. Thank you for that day. I hope you will always be a strong mother for your children.