An inspirational story of a daughter who helped her Mom go to college

I frequently turn to online friends and fans with questions. I posed these questions to the Amazing Women Rock FB community:

Dear mothers and daughters: I’m often told I’m a “good” daughter. I know it’s meant as a compliment when people say it, but I’m not exactly sure what it means.

How do you define a “good” daughter? What does it mean to be one? What do “good” daughters do that bog standard ordinary daughters don’t do and vice versa?

Is there such a thing as a “bad” daughter? What would a bad daughter do that a good daughter wouldn’t and vice versa? 

I got some great answers to my questions. 

Among them was an inspirational story from Tami Beth Long who recounted this story:

I’ve been told on many occasions that I am a good daughter.

For the first time in my life I am living more than 20 miles away from my mother. And it’s because she convinced me to do so, she wanted me to follow my dreams.

Because I’ve spent most of my life with her, we have always taken care of each other her being a single mom and me being the oldest of her children. She felt that I gave up a lot of growing up to help her out with my younger brothers and sister.

At 38 years old my mother went to college for the first time in her life, she wanted to do better for her children she wanted a better life.

I had just turned 18. I quit my job, and stayed home to take care of the house, my brothers and my sister so that my mother could follow her dream of graduating from college.

I did so happily I was proud of her, I also learned what it was to take care of a family and household.

I learned how to shop on a budget, I did laundry, helped the kids with their homework, took them to doctors appointments. I learned what it was like to be a mother.

And I was there to watch my mother walk across the stage in her capping & gown to receive her degree, and I’ve never been more proud of my life, because we all share in that degree, because I knew the sacrifice I made had helped make that degree possible for my mother.

So when it came time for me to follow my dreams, as scared as I was my mother did exactly what a mother should do she pushed me out of the nest and told me not to worry about her and to go follow my dream which took me 2700 miles from home.

We still talk every single day, and I can honestly say that my mother is my best friend and that will never change!

Tami Beth is now 43 years old. She’s following in her mother’s footsteps by pursuing her own college degree in Texas.

I thought this was such a touching and inspirational story that I just had to share it. Thanks to Tami Beth for letting me do so!

Susan Macaulay created and curates SheQuotes, My Alzheimer’s Story,  Amazing Women Rock, AmazingSusan.com, and Succeed With Susan. She is a feminist, global citizen, lifelong learner and the author of Everyday Feminine Wisdom and soon-to-be-published “the dogs’ breakfast.”