Mother’s Day is tough for me. I lost my mom to breast cancer in 2006 when she was only 49 years old. To be honest, it hurts to watch mothers and daughters — on any day — arm-in-arm giggling like old girlfriends. It only reminds me that my mother was taken away from me when, as she said several months before passing, she still felt so young.
Even though my mom is gone now, I still celebrate the other mothers around me — Grandma, Nana, aunts, friends, and now my little sister who is a mother-to-be (WOW!!!). I remember my mom by buying gladiolas — her favorite flower. They grow tall, lean, and graceful with beautiful clusters of brightly colored flowers. They remind me of my mom’s arms; she had a way of gesturing her arms when she was angry or making a joke that was just as elegant as those gladiolas.
So what does remembering my mother have to do with my blog? My mom embodied what adult education is all about. My mom hated change (but does anyone really enjoy change?). However, as we all know, change is inevitable. When I was very young she worked in a bakery at a grocery store. I thought it was the coolest job ever because she’d bring home freshly baked breads at the end of her shift. At some point, she decided she needed to do better and enrolled in a community college. I remember her taking my sister and I to night and weekend classes when no one was available to babysit. Mommy would sit us in the back with our Speak & Read to entertain us while she was learning how to be a good student. I think it was here that she began to develop her own independence too.
Later in life, she and my father divorced after almost 20 years. At this point, I was in college and my sister was close to finishing high school. Our home had gone into foreclosure and we moved to a smaller apartment. It was great to watch my mother set up that apartment. I think it was the first time in life she was able to do something on her own. Trying to convince the landlord that a woman who just lost her home, had a terrible credit score, AND had barely enough income to cover basic expenses — all with two teenagers in tow — would be a good tenant was difficult. But she triumphed. In the early months, grocery money was tight. One day my sister and I elected to cash in our water jug filled with a little over $100 in pennies. The feeling of having done something together to meet a basic need was empowering. Then, Mommy wanted to put up curtains in the kitchen. Having no idea how to use a drill, we went down to Home Depot, bought a basic drill, and we put those curtains up! After it was all done, Mommy looked at our work and her face lit up with pride. She lifted her graceful arms to show her muscles and proclaimed, “GIRL POWER!” Even after all the change we endured together — the embarrassment of losing our home, moving to a new place, and worrying about money — I knew we would be fine. And we were.
When Mommy was diagnosed with 4th stage cancer, she refused to stop living. She researched all the latest wellness treatments that went beyond chemotherapy. She wanted to use food to heal her from the inside out. When she was forced to stop working, she decided to enroll back into college so she could get ready for when the doctor said she was cancer free. She was excited to buy books and enjoyed talking to me every Sunday about what she had learned that week. However, the cancer was too aggressive and she got to a point where she had to accept the fact that she was dying.
Even in the process of dying, Mommy continued to learn. She contemplated how she could use what was left of her life to help others. She said she was proud that I had chosen to become an educator, and my sister a nurse. There were moments where it seemed as if she faced death without fear; other times she was begging God for just one more day. Now I take all those wonderful lessons Mommy gave me and I thank her for the wonderful example of growth and strength she had been to me.
Our adult education classrooms are filled with people just like my mom. Our students are going through changes they don’t always welcome with open arms, but are doing their best to find their way in the dark.
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The problem with the high cost of professional development for adult educators is the fact that the need for teachers of non-credit ESL, ABE, and GED classes is that the need is increasing — 
