When thank you doesn't seem enough

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“Inspiration is what you are to me
Inspiration, look ‘n’ see
And so today, my world it smiles
Your hand in mine, we walk the miles
Thanks to you, it will be done”
— Led Zeppelin, “Thank You”

No one has to explain that 2020 was a difficult year.

Mothers got the short end of the stick many times over throughout the course of the year.

Somehow, I ended up blessed with a superwoman of a wife.

Before COVID hit in 2020, she helped our children understand why Daddy was crushed by the loss of his grandmother in January.

Explaining that even daddies cry, and crying when someone you love has passed away is sadly not something new for my crew, but they’ve had mommy and daddy to comfort THEM during losses to this point.

Then, in early March, she was told by her employer that her position would be eliminated.

The paper informed me that my position would be cut to less than full-time at roughly the same time, so she picked up some shifts that worked with our family’s schedule after her position was eliminated with her previous employer, only to have that employer use that as a reason to deny her unemployment coverage.

The school put the education of our children into our hands for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year, and she suddenly became a teacher to a classroom of four.

A dream we’d discussed of opening an in-home daycare suddenly had to be rushed into action simply to keep the household afloat.

Just as she established her clientele to full-time in early October, COVID struck our family, essentially shutting down her daycare for multiple weeks.

While I could work from home while recovering from the virus, her daycare had to be closed. When she was able to re-open, multiple previous clients had chosen to go elsewhere, meaning she now had to rebuild her clientele again.

In the end, she was able to keep our household together while I scrambled for every hour I could get with the paper.

Even then, I had my lowest take-home pay of my adult life. She utilized various food and school giveaways, clothing exchanges, and other means to ensure that our children and the daycare children were always well fed, fully clothed, and had everything they needed.

All this while working six days per week, multiple of those days each week starting before 6 a.m. and not having the last child leave until after 10 p.m.

I could go on for a long time, but this isn’t just about my superwoman wife.

Mothers throughout the community went through an incredible year in 2020, and not the “good” incredible.

For all you’ve done for all of us in the last year, thank you doesn’t seem nearly enough, mothers.

Understand that you are, and will continue to be, an inspiration to so many in the community for all you endure and overcome each and every day with style, beauty, and grace.