Parents do astonishing things every day, and most of the time, no one sees them. They help us, take care of us, and encourage us in ways that seem almost supernatural. In this piece, we’ll tell real stories about people who have shown amazing selflessness. Some are nice, some are pretty, but all of them illustrate how caring and strong our parents can be.
Story 1: We didn’t have much when we were kids. One winter, I really wanted this red bike. It materialized under the tree as if by magic.
I found out years later that my dad sold his guitar to get it. He never talked to me. I only learned about it when I asked where it was. He shrugged and said, “The bike was louder anyway.”
For years, I rode the bike to a lot of places. But I could never forget that guitar. The calm man who traded the instrument for my smile also recalled it.
Story 2:
The night before prom, the zipper on my dress broke. In full meltdown mode. There are tears on the floor. My mom took a lantern and a sewing kit with her. She didn’t even flinch. She pushed her hair back, took off her glasses, and got to work.
The dress looked better two hours after I bought it than it did when I bought it. She even hid it in a secret pocket, “just in case.” I felt like a queen as I walked into prom. No one realized that the designer was really my mom in her pajamas. She winked at him and encouraged him to “go have fun.”
Story 3: I informed my mom I wanted to run. She bought me shoes and woke me up every day at 6. She ran with me even though she didn’t want to. Kept up with me, cheered me on, and slowed down when I did. She never missed a morning.
I made the track team. She stopped running the next day. “I just wanted to get you going,” he said. It turns out she had been icing her knees every night. She told me years later.
Story 4:
I was nervous when I went to my first job interview. My mom made me practice my answers in the living room. She asked me questions that were harder than what a manager would ask. They even made me get up to answer. She wore glasses to look “official.”
I was calm and ready for the day of the interview. I answered all of the questions correctly. I got the job. When I told her, she just said, “I told you they would be easier than I am.” There was a note from her in my pocket that said, “Good luck.” I still have it…
Story 5:
In narrative 6, I failed my math test. I was very sad. I brought it home so I could get ready for the lesson.
Instead, my mom took out her old grades. She showed me her arithmetic grades, which were lower than mine. Then she told me how she got the job of accountant. She helped me make a plan and some flashcards.
A year later, I was the best student in my class. She framed my superior test score. Put it next to a picture of her when she was ten years old. “We both figured it out in the end,” she remarked.
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Story 9:
My mom never liked my wife. “Son, she’s not the one for you!” mom cried on my wedding day.
I said to him, “You’ll love her too one day!” She nodded.
Two years later, Mom died. I went to her house to clean it out. When I looked under her bed, I stopped. There were a lot of my wife’s legal paperwork that were years old.
When I looked more attentively, I discovered that they were all bills, such college tuition, personal loans, and credit cards. They had all been paid. It was my mom. The total was $48,000.
At that point, I understood: Mom had found out about my wife’s debts and knew that if I married her, I would have to pay them off and quit school. She used her retirement money and life savings to pay it all off in discreetly.
She was trying to protect me by hiding my wife’s debts from me, which is why she tried so hard to dissuade me from marrying her. When I asked my wife about it, she said that my mother had told her to keep it a secret.
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Story 11:
My dad gives me a weird, inexpensive gift every year on my birthday. A rock, a potato, and a spoon with my name on it. But they all have a story. We brought the rock back from our camping excursion. I remember the first time I used a spoon by myself as a kid.
I have a box of these weird things at 25. Each one makes me remember something better than any pricey gift could. Dad replies, “Things that are big go away.” Not tales. I believe him now. That box is worth a lot.
Story 12:
