Her father moved to California from Portugal when he was 19, knowing very little english. He found a job as a construction worker and got married at the age of 25 to another Portuguese immigrant. When my mom was born she had to learn both English and Portuguese as her father and mother rarely spoke English in the house. Money was always an issue, with the small family of three barely scraping by. Both my mom’s dad and mother smoked heavily, and she was just 9 years old her mother died of lung cancer.
Things only got worse from there, her dad smoked more than ever, and went into a dark place after his wife 's death. He often missed days of work just to lay in bed all day. After sometime he was fired from his job, and they were forced to move. This cycle continued for an extensive amount of time, and by the time my mom was 18 she had attended 4 different high schools.
Her dad drifted deeper into his depression. The light had gone from his eyes, and what should have been the biggest source of joy in his life caused him the most pain. My mom would try to interact with him, but her attempts were all in vain. In a drunken rage late in her elementary years he screamed at her that he hated her, all because she reminded him too much of her mother. As if the emotional distress he caused her wasn 't enough, he started beating her. Not on a regular basis, but it was not a rare occurrence. Me and my mother both had difficult childhoods, hers far more rough than mine. She however, is much stronger than I will ever be. The