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Judy McIntosh

Emily Litle

ENG1021

February 7th 2023

My mother overcoming hardship

This story is dedicated to my mother, Gillian McIntosh, who was born on July 20 th, 1967.

She lives in a village call Marli, which is located in the parish of St. Patrick’s on a small island in

named Grenada. I am the youngest of my mother’s five children, there are three girls and two

boys. Additionally, she has six grandchildren, three boys and three girls who she adores.

Growing up was not easy for my mother and me, but we overcame all our hardships because

we had each other.

My mother has had several difficulties over the years. She had to raise all five of her

children alone as a single parent, yet she still takes care of her grandkids. Growing up was not

easy, especially with a large family to care for and feed. Although growing up was hard it was

still fun, we had to make it fun to filter out the good stuff from the bad. My mother was 17

years old when she had her first kid. Before coming to Marli, she lived in a village called

Salisbury Street, where she spent most of her childhood. Growing up was not easy for my

mother. She had to grow up fast in ways of being mature enough to look after her younger

sibling. Not only with everything, but she also had a baby to look after as a teenager. She first

went to the St. Patrick’s Anglican school, then onto the Mt. Rose Seven Days Comprehensive,

she later then transferred and went to the St. John’s Christian secondary school. She never
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completed high school because she got pregnant in school in the 4th form and that was hard on

my mother. When she found out she was pregnant she was too scared to tell her parents she

ended up telling an elder in the community and that individual told her mom about the

situation. This led my mother to feel terrified, alone, and hopeless, knowing her family was not

so supportive of her outcome.

She was a friendly person growing up, but she used to get into a lot of fights in school

whenever other students harassed or bullied her friends, she is one to always have her friends

back. My mother was not really a big sports person, but she loved playing Netball. She never

really liked running track but since running cross country was mandatory, she had to run. She

said to me “Girl, whenever I started the race, it is either I never finish, or I did not place good

because I always went off route and find myself with my friends in people garden picking their

fruits.” My mother first started working in the government dispensary a couple of weeks after

she dropped out of school because she needed money to take care of her baby when it arrived.

She then started to work as a caretaker/janitor at the Sauteurs health center on the 1 st of

March 1986. Fast forward 15 years later she had already given birth to 5 kids, which included

me as one of them. A couple more years later down the road 2 of my 4 siblings gave birth and

my mother is now the grandmother of 6 adorable kids. She could have had 8 grandkids, but my

big sister gave birth to twins, and it was unfortunate that they did not get to experience this

beautiful thing called Life.

My mother sacrificed so much for her kids to reach far in life, especially for me. She

motivated me in everything I did whether it was soccer training, a soccer match, academic stuff

or just in general. She always makes sure I am doing fine, or I am on top of my game plus my
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schoolwork. My mother will always take days off to come watch me play soccer, she is my

biggest fan. Whenever I am on the field playing a soccer game sometimes I tend to get nervous

or scared especially when the crowd is big, so I always look in the bleachers for my mother to

calm my nerves. But at times when she shows up late to my game, she makes sure that I know

she is there, she will shout “Come on Judy!” or “That’s my Babygirl!” And at that moment I just

knew that everything would be okay. She played a big part in getting me this far in life here at

Otero College and she is still playing a huge part in my life by supporting me and motivating me.

In conclusion, my mother did not have a fancy or easy life growing up, but she did not

give up on her kids; she stood by each of her kids' sides and told them that we are not alone.

My mother is the strongest person I know, she did not let the fact of her being a high school

dropout or a single parent get in the way of her being there for her children and making sure to

take care of her family and put them first. Despite everything she is my role model and my

number 1 soccer fan. She is my Superhero, I will not trade her for anything in the world, I am

thankful for my mother. I will do anything to make her happy because she deserves to be happy

every day. My mother will always be my motivator, she always says to me “Mix academic with

sports.”