In My Mother’s House: A Daughter’s Story

   The closest bond in the family is the one between a mother and her daughter. A bittersweet relationship, it goes through numerous ups and downs in life and in the end, still turns out to be the most intimate of all the other relationships. Till the time the daughter is still a child, she copies her mom and wants to be like her. She applies her lipstick, her nail polish, her creams and so on. Then comes the teenage, when she feels that the person who understands her the least is her own mother. After she crosses that age also, she realizes that the friend she was searching for throughout those years was there with her all along, and she is none other than her own Mom!

   The first word that a child learns to speak is Mother and the first hand that holds her is also that of her mother. The relationship between a daughter and her mother is so complex, yet so simple. You know that how much both of you fight amongst yourself, when you have to face the world, you will be one again. A daughter knows that whenever she has boyfriend troubles, she can go and discuss it with her mom, despite the fact that her mother doesn't have even the slightest likeness for the boyfriend. This is what mother and daughter relations are all about.

   The best thing about the mother/daughter relationship is that it does appear to be a global phenomenon – no matter what country or nationality, women and daughters around the world have a weird, special, close, unique relationship. The mother/daughter relationship is very different to your relationship with your father and also very different to that with your siblings. It is hard to describe and even harder to dismiss as unimportant in your life.

   There are many people that have had an impact on my life and influenced me in many different ways. My mother, however, has had the biggest impact on my life, and influenced me more than anyone else. She has had an impact on me since the day I was born, and she still does today. Before I could even talk, I am sure she had an impact on me by the way she took care of me as an infant. My mother has always been a Christian. That has influenced me throughout my whole life. Even though my mother did not see it, she did have an influence on me throughout my high school years also. As a baby, my mother had an impact on me. I was little, but I know she still did. When I would cry, she would come and see what I needed. She would change my diaper if it needed changed, or she would feed me if that is what I wanted. If there was something else wrong with me, she would definitely find it out. She would not stop trying until I stopped crying. If my mother had left me in my crib crying for hours, I would have realized soon that she probably did not really care about me.

   Last summer as I was looking through my family's chest of photo albums, I happened upon an interesting photograph. As I pulled out the last scrapbook and blew the dust away I noticed a picture forsaken at the bottom of the box, it was of my mother. This picture of her as a twenty-five-year-old woman and the story behind it has enthralled me from the moment I discovered it. The young woman in the picture is how I vision myself in a few years. Her face is not quite as round as mine, but her vibrant, blond hair is of the same hue. For as long as I can recollect her hair has always been curled, but if it were not then it would be softy, straight as my own. My mother's mouth is slightly open showing a row of perfectly straight teeth. She has the same prominent "smile lines" and the slightest hint of pink in her lips as I do. The most outstanding similarity, nevertheless, is my mother's eyes; the same form but different color.

   The eldest daughter is most often the mother’s closest friend, what if the daughter is the only girl in the family? It’s my case over here; I have one brother older than me, so the relationship that relates me with my mother is more than you can imagine; it’s not just a relationship or resemblance, it’s a bond that can never broken or separated. There is great value in the mother-daughter tie because the two parties care for one another and share a strong investment in the family as a whole. 

   Being a full-time mother is one of the highest salaried jobs in all fields, since the payment is pure love. A mother's love for her child is like nothing else in the world. It knows no law, no pity; it dares all things and crushes. And as Sharon Doubiago once said, “My mother is a poem I'll never be able to write, though everything I write is a poem to my mother”. I cannot forget my mother, she is my bridge.

                                Dedicated to my Mother: “Boudy”