My Mom, My Hero!

Lelani Nagel
May 18, 2018
6 min read

Good day fine people of the world. Hope the week treated you fair and with kindness.

I know Mother's day already passed a couple of days ago and I know I am a couple of days late. But that is simply because I have been thinking of the best way to tell everyone just how amazing my mom is and what a gigantic role she has played in my life. But words cannot ever be enough. So after a lot of brainstorming and thinking I decided to let the heart just pour out onto this page.

This is why my mom is me hero!

(Sorry Mom for all the photos in advance ;))

Dear Mom, for the past (almost 24) years, you have raised me to be a 'not-too-bad' human being.

Born and raised in Pretoria, you are a proud home-grown South African/Superwoman. I never knew you as a child or teenager but if I could imagine, I bet you and I would have been best friends (as we are right now). You were a pretty cool kid that fell asleep while reading books in the bathroom while you were actually sent there as punishment. But to you it was a little time off from the rest of the world to escape into a world filled by words creating stories. Thanks to you I have an unquenchable love for books and reading and poetry and languages.

I mean, look at this cool cat (on the right)

Jokes Mom, you ARE the cool cat ;) (The cool one on the left)

Studied Teaching and has been working as a life-changer ever since then. We as a family always joke around saying that my Mom has been stuck in Grade 4 for 18 years because she cannot pass but actually the opposite is true. She has been a teacher for most of her life. And being a teacher means that you touch and influence and change life's of little humans and molding them into the adults they are destined to become. As a teacher you motivate and push children to become the best possible versions of themselves. You push them past breaking point and then push a little more because your eyes are trained to see past all the dirt and drama into the talents and potential of each person.

This is also true for my Mom as a Mother. She has seen the potential in me and my sister and has pushed us past breaking point and then pushed a little more to the point where we wanted to pull out hair and scream into a pillow but instead we blossomed into rather oukay-ish small adults (I prefer the term small adult as I don't feel like I am a full blown adult yet). My mom was always asking about how the studying is going and if you dared to answer her with a "meh" you were sent to glue yourself in front of your books and study. For some time I didn't see it as her trying to make me into the best possible version, I saw it as punishment. But as most people say when you get older you will understand and now i do. So thanks Mom for pushing me to be the best possible version of myself. Thank you for seeing potential in me even when I felt like I was failing.

When raising girls, or as my Mom has said numerous times "trying to raise girls" you have to teach them finer things in life like doing your hair or nails or make-up etc. Or in my Moms case teaching me and my sister that burping is only allowed when it is in competition with my Dad. And that shaving your legs should not me a 'once-a-month' kinda thing except when it is winter (because we all need heat). Me and my sister grew up to be quite the opposite of what society thinks a girls should be like. Most of the time our games consisted of racing car games and pretending we were is a war in our back yard or even sometimes reenacting Lion King. Building houses with leaves and rocks and occasionally taking Barbie on the wild ride of her life.

My Mom has had her hands quite full with all the crazy fashion stunts and weird ideas we came up with. Like wearing my old wheelie-sneaker's wheel remover thingy as a necklace,because I thought I look bad-ass. Or posing like this every where I had the chance because I though I was strong (I went through a Superman obsession but actually I was just skin and bones with zero strength in my arms) also note the green shoes that I wore with everything:

Me looking all awkward and stuff while my Mom pulls out the most beautiful smile

Mom, you have never had it easy when it came to me and my weird and sometimes crazy fashion ideas. From blue to purple hair, from cutting all my hair, to getting 9 piercings in my ears and a couple of tattoos, from wearing "grandma" clothing to wearing almost nothing or trying weird combinations of clothing together. Going through a solid goth phase and after that a more girly style, a more layed back approach or going to work for the first time you have been there through it all. We had our differences about what I wanted to do but in the end you have always allowed me to be the version of myself that I choose to be, even when you strongly disagree.

For this very attribute, I have never been more thankful. Mom, you have allowed me to find myself, lose myself and rebuild myself to person that I wanted to become and be. You have supported me in all of my choices even when you strongly disagree. You have never pushed me aside or made me feel unloved because of the things I have done (ps. there is still many more to come). Because of you loving me the way that I am unconditionally (sometimes you didn't have a choice because I am still your child) I have learnt to not accept anyone's love who wanted to change me according to their demands and preferences. Through this you have taught me to love myself and all my weird quirks.

Thank you Mom for telling me how beautiful I am everyday even when I take a "Varkie-Weekend" because of studying. Thank you for teaching me the in's and out's of being a girl and what it means to be a woman.

Not only are you a Mom but also a wife. You have been married to Dad for a lot of years, 28 to be exact. And I have been around for the biggest part seeing you love and fight, grow and plant knowledge and love and making our house a home. You have show me how to love and allow to be loved in return. You have taught me how to fight and when to apologize. When to stand up and when to back down. You have taught me how relationships work and carried me through the times when they didn't. You have been the first example of love between two people that I have come to know and love in return. You have shown me how much stronger you are and how much more you can carry when you two people loving each other. You have taught me to love a person when at they are at their lowest and how to carry them and care for them till they are strong enough to carry themselves. You have taught me to love someone without expecting anything in return, and also to receive love from a person and then returning the love by ten fold.

Thank you for setting an example of how to love, care and carry a person without expectations. But doing so purely out of the love that you feel for that person.

Mom, thank you for laughing with me and not at me. Thank you for cleaning my butt (as a baby I couldn't speak and never got the chance to say thanks). Thank you for loving me at my worst and loving me just as much at my best. Thank you for all the support over the years that I still receive from you daily. Thank you for putting up with my crazy-ass. Thank you for crying with me but wiping my tears instead of your own. Thank you for laughing at my joke which I know can be quite lame. Thank you for watching Grey's with me and making me tea when I start to cry. Thank you for all the hugs when I just feel like needing a hug. Thank you for taking care of me in my sickness during the day even when you didn't sleep at all because you were taking care of me during the night. Thank you for always being there in the tough times and cleaning me up and making me feel good again after I have fallen in the dirt.

Thank you for making me into the woman that I am today.

Thank you for being one hell of a super Mom!!

But most of all thank you for being my Mom!