Biography 255: My mom

 My mom is a workaholic woman. And she likes to work fast. She worked full-time. More than full-time, there are always extra hours with or without payment. And she still managed to work at home. She did everything she did alone: House cleaning, cooking, doing the dishes, inviting people at home, and making food for them.

It's not that she doesn't want help, but none of us could work up to the mark for her. If we do anything, that makes her more crazy. So, I decided not to work or help her, as it wasn't working. If I don't do anything, she will say, no one is helping me. If I do anything, she will find 500 more faults to accuse me of and scold me for the rest of my life.

Many times, if a guest came to our home without any notification (on those days, cell phones weren't available), my mom made a full meal for them (Polao rice, curry, salad, etc.) within an hour. Even guests were surprised to learn how she did it all alone in one hour.

Now a day, she doesn't have the strength to work like that. But still, she works as much as she can, then rests in bed.

Though I always kept some distance from her to avoid making her angry, I helped her as much as possible with distance. I used to put all our wet clothes on the roof and bring those back (from level 2nd to level 6th by stairs with a bucket of clothes), go to the nearby grocery shop to get anything emergency (mostly eggs for father), pay bills to the bank, tried to give her some pocket money, giving gifts.

But it was impossible to make her happy with gifts. No matter what I bought, she didn't like that. So, I always bought gifts in a way that if she didn't like them, then I could use them. Let me give you an example. On her birthday I bought a pair of slippers. She said she won't take it. So, I started wearing it. One day, she said, you bought a beautiful one for yourself and gave a bad one to me. I reminded her that it was actually for her, but she rejected it. 

If I give them money, she doesn't spend it on herself; she saves it and spends it on her children when needed.

After school, she never took money from her parents. She always earned money and gave it to them to help their lives. Then, this expanded to her families, her in-laws, poor people from the village, poor people from the city, orphanages, etc.