Mom

You were the first voice I ever heard and the one I still reach for when everything falls apart. There is no version of me that exists without you — without your patience, your sleepless nights, your hands that never stopped working for us.

I remember the way you smelled when you came home. The way you laughed when something really caught you — the kind that started in your chest and took over the whole room. The way you sat at the kitchen table late at night, quiet, thinking, still. You never needed to say how much you loved us. We could feel it in everything you did.

You gave up more than we will ever know. You kept whole worlds going with your hands and never once made it look like a sacrifice. That is the kind of love that doesn't announce itself — it just shows up, every morning, every evening, every time.

Thank you, Mom. Not just for raising us — but for showing us what it means to be a human being worth being. You are the best thing in our lives. That will never change.