"SINGLE MOM'S" it's hard but never give up.

5 years ago I was thrown into a situation where my whole perspective on life had changed. I lived by the standards back then. Graduate high school go to College get a career get married buy a home and have children. It was all going beautiful until mental health kicked in and my husband committed suicide. There I stood with 3 kids on my own, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. My children were young, 6, 11, 13. It seemed to me like a life sentence. I was working shift work so my kids had to step up and grow up faster than their friends. Family have always been there to help out when they were younger, but as they aged, the help dried up. When one child would be away at a sleepover the others were at home, so it was still the endless cooking, cleaning, laundry, driving etc. At times (often) I felt so tired, and overwhelmed, that I just couldn't keep the pace anymore. You see my son, the oldest was an elite athlete, and my daughters, which we had introduced them to sport at a young age. I just could not tell him that he had to quit because their father had died, so I did the early morning practices and the carpooling, but 5 years later it has caught up with me and I am tired. Today as I look at these children I have a 19 year old attending a prestigious University going into 2nd year, I have a 17 year old who is about to graduate a year early and go off to University and an 11 year old holding her own and busy as a bee. I managed to DO IT. They did not fall into the pitfalls of drugs or alcohol and they made great choices in their life, that I had guided them to make. It was not easy and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now. SO TO ALL THOSE SINGLE WIDOWED MOM'S OUT THERE, Big Shout out to you and just keep your head up and keep smiling, the rewards are worth all the hard work.