But it was not just because of this that she was smart. She always knew how to give the right advice. When I was seven, I often came home crying from school, because, back then, I was a bit chubby and my peers ruthlessly picked on me. My mother would hold me in her arms, push back my long hair from my face, and wiped away my tears as I told her what happened. My mother gave the right advice so many times, it was if she had been right there with me when it happened. Being little, I would sometimes whine about my weight, and then my mother would tell me that she had once been like me. When I was this little I did not believe it, because at the time, I looked nothing like her. 

My mother was the strongest person I have ever known. She fought her way from the other side of the world, against all odds, knowing she would never see her family again, all for my father. And if my mother had not been so strong, I do not think I would be here today, telling you her story.