Because we recently asked Jaylene what it was like living with her mother, she sent us this copy of an essay she wrote for school:
THINGS I LEARNT AT HOME:
For the first twelve years of my life, my mother and I lived alone. Those were peaceful, happy years and everything I learnt, I learnt from her. When she adopted me at the age of nine months old, I was a scared infant that had been abandoned twice. She carried me on her back everywhere she went so that I would learn that I can depend on someone else being there for me.
She is a very organized and skilled homemaker and I used to watch her baking bread and cleaning house from her back. As I grew older she started teaching me homemaking skills that I will use in my own home someday: how to bone a chicken, how to iron the beautiful table linens she was gathering for me in my very own trunk (we call it my ” hope chest”). She let me play my imaginary games for hours by myself. She said the most important thing one needs to be happy, is to know how to enjoy being alone.
My mother was an international lecturer and she taught me about different countries by often taking me with her when she travelled. She set an example of how to manage time well. She used to watch Walt Disney movies with me on her lap at night. But I never saw her waste time. She wrote her books at McDonalds Play Place while I had fun, or on the beach while I built sand castles. She got up early every morning to get chores done before I even woke up. Everywhere my mother went, she showed grace and courtesy. She made something beautiful almost every day and she made people around her happy. We didn’t have a lot of money, but the clothes she bought me at the second hand store, made me feel like the prettiest little girl in pre-school. But most of all I learnt that as we go through life, we can leave the world a better place.
LOVE
What an incredible heartfelt testimonial, Jaylene!!
Thank you for your beautiful expression of your
extraordinary mother.
You are a very special daughter, bright and perceptive.
Reading this is a true inspiration❤️
Jaylene…thank you for sharing the beautiful essence of your relationship
Thank you Jaylene for sharing your essay. I can feel the love and appreciating you share with each other in this story about your mam. Let all of us leave the world a better place.
Love and hugs,
Ton
Such a lovely essay Jaylene. Your experienes of childhood and the perceptions you have gained and integrated will certainly make a marvelous parent of you too one day.
Thank you, Jaylene!
It’s så beautifuly discribed. Through you I got endnu more clothe to my beloved Almine
Wish you beautiful and rich happy life.
Big hug
Thank you Jaylene for sharing this inspiring portrait of you with your precious Mother.
That’s beautiful Jaylene! Thanks for sharing that great essay with us. You and your mom are both wonderful gifts to all of life, in so many ways. I am so grateful to know you both and to have had the opportunity to share moments of life with you. Your mom loves you very much and is a great inspiration…as I’m sure you will be as well, along your journey in life. You already are an inspiration to me and many others who read your postings on this Diary!
With lots of love to you both! XOXO
What an example for the perfection of the workings of the Divine Order — May you always be protected and guided to manage the challenges that will be. May you radiate the Joy of LIfe to everyone – and everything.
Just a day or two ago I was wondering what it must be like for you, Jaylene, living with your Mama Almine…So thank you for the wonderful essay. What a blessing you are to one another and thus to all of us. Thank you, PLGT, R
Totally awesome!! Something we can all live by…..creating beauty. 🙂
Dear Jaylene, This is so very touching and beautiful. You have woven a true and wonderful tapestry of your Mother. Thank you
Thank you, Jaylene. It sounds exactly like what we have seen and been told–an illustration of integrity and teaching by example.
Thank you, Jaylene. I am so touched by what you wrote. ….. Hearing these details of your life with your mom is such an inspiration…… and such a wonderful example for all of us to follow …….. And your appreciation of her beautiful qualities clearly reflects the great beauty within you. Lots of love.
Beautiful !
So beautiful Jaylene and thank you for sharing! You are loved so much by your Mom. Love you too. xx
Touchingly beautiful!
Thank you for sharing such nice memories!