Dear Mom,

I just want to start this letter by saying you are tremendously courageous. If I ever become half as courageous as you are, then I'll be doing alright in my life. I thank the Lord for you.

You have faced the toughest situations in life and handled them the best way you knew how. You have told me stories of how you didn't always have a great upbringing and had mental issues when you were younger. This is one of the things we have in common. Because we have this in common, I can relate to you and we are closer because of that.

Then came the things you had to deal with when you were married to my dad. Dad was brutal to you and even though I don't remember him being mean to you, I believe you. Our family has always criticized you and said that these things aren't true. Hence the bravery. You had the courage to not only divorce my dad but face scathing criticism from our family.

You literally broke your back after that to work in a nursing home to provide for me, Amber, and Robbie. You have taught me by example that when you have kids, their welfare comes first above your own. You drove this point home when you would work long shifts at the nursing home and at every other job you have worked to provide for us kids. This example, I will carry with me to someday when I have kids.

You have stayed up long nights to help me through my mental disabilities, working with me to teach me how to do things I need to be able to do here in my life as a man. When I was in the hospital with pneumonia, you were by my side holding my hand to comfort me when the doctors would come in and do painful tests.

You have stayed up nights helping me with school projects, sometimes going through the trouble as to do them for me. I remember in elementary school when you cooked all those pancakes for my 5th-grade class' Revolutionary War party. Let's just say, my fellow classmates and I loved them.

Flash forward to 6th-grade, when I lost my classmate in a house fire, you were there to comfort me through all the tears I cried. You were there when I got in trouble so much in 8th-grade, to teach me firm discipline and unwavering love. I knew when you were mad enough because of something I did at school, I was going to eat some crow when I got home. All the groundings, the switches to my backside, and all the sentences I had to write taught me everything that is wrong has consequences. You are the reason I learned right from wrong, as well as Mamaw and Papaw teaching me too.

When you got arrested when I was a senior in high school for drugs, I never stopped loving you. You hurt me when you did that. Every day since you have left jail, you have worked hard to earn back the trust you have betrayed when you were on drugs. And you have never stopped since. Even when family constantly criticized you for your life choices, you stood strong and took it.

Flash forward to my senior year in college. You are an amazing, loving grandmother, excuse me, "Nana" to Scarlette and Clarissa, and I know you will love my future kids when they come too as much as you love Scarlette and Clarissa

You are still there for me to talk to, complain to, cry to, and loudmouth my professors to. You still fix me wonderful, delicious food and it fills both my soul and my stomach.

I love you, Mom. And I always will. Because you are my heroine.

Love,

Your son Matt