20 People Who Are Infinitely Grateful to Their Parents

If you were asked what your parents did for your future when you were a child, you would probably recall several stories. Adults usually work hard to secure the future of their children. Some of our readers have shared their tender stories in which Mom and Dad are superheroes without capes.

• We lived in the countryside, far from the stores. Once, my teacher asked for some supplies, which I didn’t have at home. My father made them with sticks, and I could see the effort he had made so that I wouldn’t lack anything. Although they were too thick, I was proud to use them because he had made them for me. Poxa Muñoz Lobos / Facebook
• My father was widowed at the age of 24, my brother had paralysis, and I was one year old. However, he pulled us through. Unfortunately, my brother is no longer alive, but that is what has motivated me to fight for my daughters to give them a better future. Nena Somar / Facebook
• My mother, without any studies or experience, had to find a job because my father was no longer contributing financially to the household, so she had to make money. She got a difficult but honest job. With responsibility and dedication, she worked for years to give my brother and me an education and a decent life. This month she received her pension notice, an achievement she richly deserves. She is a great example of a hardworking woman. Angie González / Facebook
• My parents did many things throughout my life. At a time when I was very sad, my dad would call me every day (because I live far away from them) to tell me that I was capable of doing great things and that everything was going to be okay. I would wake up at half past five in the morning to go to work, but my day would start after my dad’s call. Cecilia Suaznabal / Facebook

• Before I entered my first year of high school, my mother enrolled in a night school to help us with our studies, but besides that, she worked in a factory from 6 in the morning until 4 in the afternoon. When she got off work, she would pass by the market and come running to give us something to eat, and then she would go to her evening classes. She would leave at 10 p.m. and come home to check our homework and get our uniform ready.
  Many times she would go to bed at 1 a.m. because she had to do the washing or iron. That’s how she ended up becoming an accountant. Thanks to her example, we are all high school graduates in my family. She always told us that study and honest work would get us ahead. Deep admiration for my mother. Ana Lepiz Ramirez / Facebook
• My mother is a warrior. My father abandoned us, and she didn’t put us to work. On the day of my graduation, she sold her sewing machine. Maria Angeles Acuña Ibarra / Facebook
• My dad didn’t have the opportunity to study, so he couldn’t read or write. But he always brought books of all kinds to the house. He used to tell me “Read aloud, I can’t see well.” He told me the truth when I was 14 years old, which was that he never went to school. My mother went to high school at the same time I did, only she went to a different place. Mayumi Carmona Bello / Facebook
• My father had to go to work in the United States for 5 years, and the whole family suffered. He focused only on work and always sent us money. I also admire my mother for the strength she had to raise my siblings and me by herself, with half of her heart in another country. Monserrat Calam / Facebook

• My mom quit her job to go to my high school graduation. She worked hard all the time and always helped me so that I could graduate. She was proud that day. Hector Antonio Marte Larsen / Facebook
• My mother sold tortillas to be able to feed me because my dad had left us, and that’s how she got me through. Katerin Figueroa Corrales / Facebook
• My father worked very hard, and he also worked a lot of overtime to provide for the family. When I was 14, he went to work in the desert with a contractor, so he could throw me my 15th birthday party. Mary Jesus Ramirez Oliva / Facebook
• I had to laminate my school binder, but my parents had no money, and since the teacher had already scolded me several times, my mom grabbed a large plastic bag, cut it up, and used it to cover it. It looked weird, but at least the teacher was pleased. Chumacero Osorio Eridani / Facebook

• My dad used to get up at 4 a.m. to ride his bicycle to work, which was far away from our house. Since he worked in a bakery, he made a backpack using a sack to bring us bread every time he came back from work. Francis Diaz Contreras / Facebook
• My dad would leave for work at three in the morning and didn’t care if it rained; he never left us without food, clothes, or education. Even though he ran the risk of getting sick from picking up trash and sweeping the streets, my father was always there.
  And my mother raised us with a lot of sacrifices, taking care of animals, carrying water, washing everything by hand, and taking care of our education. They were the first ones to get up and the last ones to go to bed. Maria Guadalupe Mixpa / Facebook
• Once I was in the hospital for an illness, my parents were always with me. My dad sold what he had and went into debt, so I could have a private medical service, and my mother never left my side for a day. Belinda Varela Izquierdo / Facebook
• My father decided to say “I love you” through his actions. I remember one day, my dad brought my lunchbox to school. While I was eating, I talked to him and asked him if he had already eaten, and he assured me he had.
  A few years later, my dad mentioned that he had given me his lunchbox, but that he had only eaten a little and had left the rest for me. The lunchbox seemed untouched, so I found it hard to believe that he had actually eaten anything. My dad was a bricklayer and needed to eat well, but with his great fatherly love, he had no problem sharing his lunchbox with me.

When we are young, we take our parents’ love for us for granted, and don’t appreciate them as much as they deserve. But, as we grow older, we realize that our parents are the biggest supporters in our lives. They happily gave up a lot of things in order to raise us in the best possible way they could.