Eileen Gonzalez

My hero is my mom Eileen Gonzalez. She was born in Fresno. She grew up with 6 of her brothers and sisters, her mom (my grandmom) had 7 kids. Then my mom want to high school and she had her first kid Jesus Gonzalez Jr. Then two years later she had my sister Amy Gonzalez. Then my sister Jenny and my brother Mario. My other brother Stephen my sister Leanna Valles. Then me and then last my little brother Emilio. Then years later my stepdad had died my mom was on her own and she had all 8 of us. She had two jobs so she can put food on the table and we can have a house and clothes to wear to school. She tries so hard for all of us.

There was a bad time for my mom. My sister Amy had her first kid when she was 13 years old and she had her own family so my mom had to really take care of 10 people before my brother Jesse had moved out and my brother Jesse had his girlfriend move in and their first kid too. So my mom had to get money for 12 people. Then one year later I was born so it was harder for my mom's job. She had a kid and had two jobs. There were some times when my mom didn't eat and had all of us eat, but not me. I had to have a bottle. As I got older and when getting older my little brother was born and my older brother got a job and he was helping my mom with money and she was taking care of him. When she had to go to work my older sisters had to take care of all the little kids and make food for us and everything for us.

Then that's when everything had changed. My stepdad had died and my mom was crying and everyone was fighting with everyone. We all went to gangs and drugs. My siblings didn't care she was sad and had two kids that were little and she thought that me and my little brother were not going to like that and she had dreams for us. Now I just have to make this dream to come true. My mom tries hard to take care of us and she always puts food on the table and have clothes on our backs. She goes to work in the morning and then she goes to work at night. When she will go to work she would have my sister take care of us and she would do that then she give us our food and she would give use baths and have everyone go to bed and make sure that we all did our work. Then when everyone would be in bed she would do her homework and then when she was done she will take a shower and go to bed like around 3'oclock. My mom will come home, take everyone to school. Then when she would get home she would go to sleep, then she would put her alarm on then she would wake up and get ready for work and go to her morning job and then she would come back and then she would go back to sleep and wake up and go to her other job.

Then everyone was starting to get older and everyone got their own lives and then most of them moved out, got their own places and there were just about 5 of us that were in the house and my mom got 1 job and she works in the morning and stays home for the night and gets more money so now there is lots of food and we go shopping almost every time before we go back to school. My mom had everything for us in all the tough time. She had made it. There was a time when in the same year almost everyone was dying and there was no money for us to have funerals and all we had was to do car washes and do whatever to make money and to buy everything that we were going to need. There were lots of Christmases where we did not have money and we could not get stuff and when we did get stuff it was like little. It didn't cost a lot and it was like a small little toy.

MY mom is now having all the money that she needs and she goes to work and makes money so we can get our food and have clothes to wear. She no longer has two jobs. She works at one at a nursing home. She sleeps in the afternoon and she wakes up at night and she goes to work before 11'o clock. Then she gets home like about 7:30. She comes and then she takes my little brother to school and then she comes home and she does whatever she needs to do. Then sometimes she waits to take me to school and I always hate it because she always takes her time. Then when we get there I just get out of the car and I walk away and she does not see me until I get home. So sometimes I feel so bad because I don't talk to her and we don't even talk together when I get home. Then when I do talk to her she does not talk back but I still love my mom and I think she is the best mom that I have and I should not be mean to her because she had to go through all the stuff and I was not there to tell her that it is ok and we can get through this together. So that is why my mom is my hero and I'm happy to call her my mom and the person that is my hero.