It is said that “A mother holds her children’s hands for a while…their hearts forever.” In this case not only my mom but my parents hold my heart forever.

My family was very poor, in my family I only had a mom and my father passed away before I was born. I hated my mom very much. She wore rugged and torn clothes and she worked as a servant to support the family. The most hateful part of her was that she only had one eye.

There was this day where I was playing in the park and my mom came to say hello to me. I was shock to see my mom there so I disregarded her, threw her a detestable look and ran out.

How could she do this to me? The next day at school one of my friends from the playground said, ‘OH MY GOSH, your mom only has one eye!’

I felt the very mortified; I wanted to bury myself in a big and deep hole. I also wanted her to be banished away from here. That day a confronted my mom, I shouted at her for coming to the park and told her that I wouldn’t care if she died.

My mom just kept quiet and did not respond…. I didn’t even stop to think for a second about what I had said, because I was mad. I guess I felt a little bad, but at the same time, it felt good to think that I had said what I’d wanted to say all this time. Maybe it was because my mom doesn’t punish me, but I didn’t think that I had hurt her feelings very badly. That night I saw my mother crying quietly, so that I was not disturbed. I took a look at her, and then turned away. Because of the thing I had said to her earlier, my whole heart was aching and felt like a two ton rock. Even so, I hated my mother because she only had one eye, who was crying. So I told myself that I would grow up and become successful because I hated my mother and the poverty we were in.

I studied hard and got accepted to a good university. I left my mother and went abroad to study in the university. Soon I got married; I bought a big house for myself. I had kids of my own. I felt like the happiest man alive until one day….

What?! Who’s this?! … It was my mother… Still with her one eye. My Mother came to visit me. It felt as if the whole sky was falling apart on me. She hadn’t seen me in years and she didn’t even meet her grandchildren.

When she stood near the door my kids started crying in fear and the look my had. I yelled at her for coming over without informing me. I screamed at her, ‘How dare you come to my house and scare my children!’ GO AWAY FROM HERE! NOW!!!

My mom quietly said “Oh, I’m so sorry. I may have gotten the wrong address,’ and she disappeared out of sight.” I felt relieved that she did not recognize me.

One day, a letter regarding a school reunion came to my house. After the reunion, I went down to the old shack that I used to call a house… just out of curiosity. There, I found my mother fallen on the cold ground. But I did not shed a single tear. She spoke her last word in the breath she had left…

My son… I think my life has been long enough now…

Would it be too much to ask if I wanted you to come visit me once in a while? I miss you so much… And I was so glad when I heard you were coming for the reunion. But I decided not to go to the school… For you… and I’m sorry that I only have one eye, and I was an embarrassment for you.

Those were my mom’s last words before she died right before my eyes. She had a letter in her hand which had my name written on it. I took at and went home to my real family but I decided not tell them about my mother’s death because if I didn’t care why would they?

Later that evening at home I was sitting at my desk and I opened my mom’s letter and I read…

‘My dearest son,

I miss you and think of you all the time. I sorry for frightening your children and making them cry.

I was glad you came for the reunion but I decided not to go. Just for you, I think you are fed up of me and do not want to see me anymore. Any way I wouldn’t have been able to come because I am so weak and am about to die. I am very sorry that you had to go through difficult times just because of my one eye.

You see… when you were born the doctors told your father and me that you wouldn’t be able to live because you have a weak heart which is not strong enough to pump blood around your body. As parents, we couldn’t let you die so your father sacrificed his heart and after one year you had an accident where you lost your eye so I sacrificed my eye to you.

I was so proud of my son who was life a whole new life for me, in my place. I was never upset at you for anything you did or said… The couple times that you were angry with me, I thought to myself, ‘it’s because he cares about me….’

Always remember that people will forget what you said … 

people will forget what you did … 

but people will never forget how you made them feel…

With all my love to you,

Your mother.’

I was shocked to see what my mom had done to me so I immediately ran to where my mom was living. There I saw people crying. I went there and people were staring at me. I knew what they were thinking about me. I kept quiet and prayed to my mom. I told her I was very sorry for what I did to her.

I was the last person to leave that place and after I went home, my wife and children were worried about me and asked where I had been. I told them the whole story and the letter. From then on every weekend we went to the cemetery to pray to my mom and give her respect for what she did to me.

One day I saw my mom saying hi to me and forgiving me for what I did. My heart was relived, after so many days of being haunted for what I did to my mom I couldn’t sleep very well, but now I feel very peaceful so later I went back home. When I went back home I taught about when I saw my mom, then it came to me that I only saw my mother with my right eye, my mother’s eye!