Today is one month from my mom, Veronica Dorothea Miller Dickes’ birthday. We are both Leos, but she’s always shared her light with me. In this spirit, the eighth reflection is that single moms are actual superheros. All moms are superheros, but single moms have to have an extra ‘umph’ to get through the day and to keep their child(ren) alive. I was always grateful to be an only child, simply because more than one of us would have seemed like an impossible burden for my mom to bear and I doubly applaud single mothers of multiple children.

Single parenthood is full of sacrifice. Sacrifice of your time, your body, your money, your sanity. Its not a cliche, I watched my mom give up everything, all so I could have a better chance than she did. Most of what I’ve learned in life, I’ve learned from her and I’m sharing with you. She speaks three languages (Japanese, English, and French) putting any teenager to shame for missing points on an English exam. But as a superhero single mom she had to do everything else, from cleaning up my many cuts and scrapes to somehow wiring our first house with internet (for the youth: back then we used ‘Ethernet cords’ that had to go from your phone jack to your computer for the cyber). I watched her as she struggled to keep the cupboards full and the house clean while working a full-time job. When the old Buick broke down I watched her put on her snow boots and walk a mile in a foot of snow to take a bus to get to work. I saw her suffer as she was too tired to take time for herself by the end of the day. Then every morning she dragged her angsty teenage daughter out of bed kicking and screaming for school, and the cycle continued.

The point really is, single moms are remarkable and sacrifice so deeply its difficult to describe adequately with words. I couldn’t be more proud of her strength and resilience and grateful for her sacrifice. In that photo, you see love her eyes that’s kept both of us going from the day I was born to the day I post this. May we all experience a love so profound.