It was late afternoon on a summer day about seven years ago and I was fake-sleeping inside my mom’s hospital room because it was my turn to guard her.

She was admitted because of a mild stroke and she was talking to her attending physician about what happened to her.

“Will I still be able to do my daily tasks?” she asks.

Her doctor answered, “Yes but first we have to get you well.”

“Good. Because that will be unfair to the kids,” her voice cracked.

Half of me wished that I was really sleeping at that time so that I didn’t hear her utter those words.

Those words still echo in my head every time I think I failed her.

How unselfish she was to still think about her kids when she was lying sick in her hospital bed.

My mom single-handedly raised five of us for the past years. But since my dad was almost working every day, or so he said, it felt like she raised us alone since I was in college.

And during the year that my mom was in and out of the hospital, that’s the time my dad decided to leave us without even saying goodbye. The time when we needed him the most to be our solid rock, he abandoned us. He never even bothered to ask how we were feeling. While my mom, sick in her bed, never thought about her. She was worried that it would be unfair for us if she wasn’t able to do her daily chores.

That’s my mom — unselfish and always thinking of us.

I miss having a father, I admit. But my mom has successfully filled the void in our lives and hearts that my father left. My mom is just as strong as other fathers, or maybe stronger than some. And on top of that, she has the biggest heart.

Do not get me wrong, my mom has her own share of flaws. She tends to ask too many questions because she tends to forget what our answers were. Anxiety and worry are two of her weaknesses. Too bad, I think I inherited these two from her.

But raising five kids alone for the past couple of years isn’t a joke. That’s why I think of my mom as a super human being in spite of her flaws. Being able to face and overcome the hurdles of raising five kids is an achievement.

We may not be rich and we may not live in a big mansion and have dozens of cars. But having my mom is the most prized treasure we can ever have. We will be forever thankful and blessed to have her as our mom. She will always be our hero.

I am everything I am today because of my mom. I may not be the perfect son she wished me to be but I am strong because of her.

I think that is what sets single moms apart. They own a big heart and they have the strength of a father. They are a mom and dad all rolled into one.

This story is a tribute to all the single moms out there who play dual roles to their children. How lucky the world is to have single moms. They may do twice the job as a parent but in return, they get twice the love that they truly deserve.

[Entry 224, The SubSelfie Blog]