Notes On The Day Of My Life

daughter, three and a child on the way. My daughter is 18 now, has graduated high school, and are

When I was 11, my parents were battling in an ugly divorce. I wasn't seen as a kid because for a brief moment I became an adult that could make tough life changing decisions. As a child , I was confused on what was happening. I didn’t understand why my mom was gone one day, returned the next and then  just gone. I couldn't comprehend why police officers would regularly come to my broken home. The gruesome divorce and after period was an emotional roller coaster that never ended until today. It was difficult to adapt to the new lifestyle with a new single mom. I vividly remember having to sleep on the floor for months , having an empty naked white fridge and having to support my single mother every night as she dealt with depression. Although, life was hard I stayed strong, supported my sisters and accepted the new life I  was given.

My grandmother resided with one of my aunts for the last 15 years of her life. As her health started to fail her, she became more and more dependent. My grandmother was always a very independent woman and the rock of our

first jobs.He was the first person in my life to tell me that I was

with family members until he was able to save enough money to rent his own apartment with his

He always enjoyed picking up the check when we went on dates but I knew that most of the money he earned at his job as a Salesman for Winters Auto and Trucks Sales was mostly used to help his mothers and brothers.

Before I moved from where I was born - a small city in Sweden just to be with him and turned his life completely upside down. Just a couple of days after this story took place both our lives changed forever. We met and 6 months later I moved to Newcastle to be with him. I had to get used to the language/accent, the food, his family and getting around a big city when I came from a small town. I was 16 when I moved to a strange country by myself. My family and friends are still in Sweden and I miss them a lot. It is very difficult to have a boyfriend from a different country, to move in with him at a young age but we have really faced every type of issue a couple can have and we handled it and are still together and i know that we will be togheter for the rest of our

I have three children, Danielle, Greg and Dean; I was lucky enough to be a stay at home mom till Dean went to Kindergarten. These years were the best time of my life, being home fulltime with my children. After helping Danielle, Greg and Dean; graduate from college, it is now my time. College takes a lot of time and

dependent. In addition to being able to use a dependency exemption on me, he also has found it very beneficial to itemize

As I got older, I was blessed to have met the right people in high school who end up being my longtime friends till this day. They were able to assist me during my hardship struggles of my double life I lived in. Because of them, I was able to be process myself through individuation, where I can separate more from my family and established my own identity now. My outside experience was able to open my mind and perspective more, and let go off high expectations that held me back to attempt other

our home as long as we could meet her needs. When her condition reached the point where she

The first few months were the toughest because we had to learn to do everything by ourselves. Back in Venezuela my mom used to do all the house chores. Me and my sister didn’t know anything about cooking, washing and ironing the cloth, making doctors appoiment or even paying the house bills. Little by little and learning from our mistakes we had

Since the children were born, I have been their primary caregiver, I have been responsible for preparing their meal, getting them dressed, keep them safe and make sure everyone in my family receive necessary medical care. I have been working full time and have been the sole financial provider for the family rent, my children’s education cost, my family medical insurance, including my husband, my son’s music lesson, and my baby’s daycare. I have been in the emergency room for both my daughter and my son’s appendicitis surgery. I make all my family’s medical appointment, including my husband. I follow up with my children’s performance at school. I attend school- parent meeting. I have been always available for my children when they need me. I am with them when they are sick. My children are all closely bonded to me.

I began to help my mom around the house. I had to learn how to cook a proper meal when I was seven years old, do laundry among other things to give my mom some relief. One day, when I was nine years old, my grandmother shared the news of my father’s departure to the U.S and that he did so to give me a better chance. It was heavy news for me, and as an emotional child I cried with my grandma and felt sad that from now on I was not going to get the occasional visit from him. As a teenager in the process of growing into a man, you think you need a father figure, a man perspective, advice on things that life throw at you, it was clear that I didn’t have that anymore. I was fortunate to have my mother and my grandmother to teach me right and wrong; the rest was pretty much up to me.

All of it conducted by my mom because she could not understand how we could manage to let her live with us for free. My mom is a proud woman who believes she has to carry her weight and do her fair share. In the end, we told mom to decide on how she wanted to "help" us and what made her comfortable, and she made the decisions on what she wanted to pay. We required nothing of her other than the pleasure of her company and the opportunity for her to become closer to the grandkids we were helping