I grew up in a very fortunate family. As I grew older, we became wealthier. We didn’t start out with much, though. My parents only had the basics after they moved in together and after having me, they had to turn every penny around and be very careful with how they spend their money.
One day, when I was around four or five years old, our house got robbed. They took nearly everything. Actually, it got robbed twice. See, my mom had to go for brain surgery and I stayed with my grandma. Luckily so, or else I might not have lived to see this day. I often stayed at my grandma’s house back then – you could say it was my second home and my grandma, my second mom. My dad visited my mom in hospital every night and on one fateful night, our house was broken into. They stole half of everything and even left a note saying that they would return. My dad had all the locks replaced and everything, but to no avail – they still got in and took the rest. We believe this was orchestrated by our maid – we had to let her go when my parents could no longer pay her and she vowed that she would get her money back.
It was hard for us to get back up from that incident, but we did. The church was so generous to donate a lot of spare clothes to us and we’ll always be grateful for that. My mom was left with only one side of her brain after her surgery and my parents had to work really hard to turn things around. They sold our house and found a new place quite far away, with tighter security. I wouldn’t see my grandparents as often as I did, but we would be safer.
Years went by and eventually, after seeing how lonely I was as an only child, my parents decided to have another baby, my brother. My dad started breeding with birds as an extra income and my mom stayed up late at nights, making sure to have all her work done before the dreadful deadlines and she often went away on work trips.
She really cared about her family. Even though work kept her busy almost all the time, she still made time for her kids and made sure we knew how much she loved us. She wasn’t the stereotypical mom – she didn’t have a lot of time to play, cook or clean (our maids did most of the cleaning and cooking), but she was always there.
When I wanted to just talk about things I was curious about, she listened. When I had a rough day at school, she was a shoulder I could cry on. When I needed advice in difficult situations, she was there to give it to me. She was my rock, my anchor…my best (and often only) friend.
She was, admittedly, a perfectionist and a bit of a hot-head. Sometimes she had unexpected outbursts and yelled at us for things I felt weren’t such a big deal to be angry about, like the dishes I left laying in my room or my dad spending so much time outdoors. There were times that I had to steer clear from her and and wait for her to cool off. Other times, she and my dad had huge fights over the most trivial things and her anger just made everything worse.
But she was always a kind and caring person. She always gave back to those in need and gave my grandma money every month after my grandpa died, who was the only breadwinner in their house before he suddenly passed. She booked many vacations, to relieve the stress she experienced from work and spend quality time with her family. I got everything I asked for on birthdays, be it a new phone or gaming console. We could afford it all, because my mother worked herself into an early grave.
Eventually, the workload got more than her body could handle. She was diagnosed with many illnesses and was admitted to hospital on numerous occasions after suffering from heart attacks. We all repeatedly told her to stop working that much and take some much-needed time to rest. She never listened.
Here I am, on Mother’s Day, helping my children pick out a gift for my wife at the very last minute. I was supposed to leave the store with two gifts.
Oh, Mama…I wish you were here.
Author’s Notes: Happy Mother’s Day! I have decided to participate in the Monthly SimLit Short Story Challenge this month, organized by LisaBee, a Game Changer for The Sims 4 and fellow SimLit writer. I based this story on my own mom and life, but I did change it up significantly. I just felt that this theme required a personal touch and I immediately thought of my mom when I saw it. I thank you for taking the time to read my story and I hope you enjoyed it. Whether I win or not, I enjoyed writing this entry and I’m honoured to be a part of the SimLit community.
I invite you to read all the stories entered for this challenge and vote for your top three choices in both categories (Novice and Veteran), meaning you will have a total of six votes. Any vote that doesn’t contain three votes in each category will be thrown out, so please vote for three Novice stories and three Veteran stories! Thank you LisaBee for creating this awesome challenge and best of luck to all the other participants!
Credits:
Thank you to the following creators for the use of their beautiful lots, which can be found on The Sims 4 Gallery:
- brenleedee – Basegame Starter Home
- Patriciarg75 – Family House 🖤
- Tiki5872 – The Bazaar
- KateEmerald – Circular Hill Mansion
Divan the Simmer's SimLit Blog 