My father passed away when I was just a baby. Mother had to cope alone, raising and providing for us. But even in the most difficult times, she didn’t ask her mother-in-law for help.
My mother had to work three jobs at the same time, to be able to pay rent, eat, dress, and give me an education. I remember I was seventeen years old when I worked in a store as a packer of goods. I wanted a new computer so badly, so I worked hard there for a year. But I never managed to raise the necessary amount of money.
Then one day I overheard my mother asking to borrow money from my mother-in-law, my grandmother, to pay for an operation. My mother had been diagnosed with a hernia. Mom could never save money, she was always short. But if she had the chance, she would put the money into a “salvation bottle” – a kind of secret vase.
I put everything I made this year in it. The computer could wait. I remember my mother telling my grandmother over the phone, happy, that I didn’t need to borrow any more, that I had enough money for the operation.
