She had married at eighteen and had me at twenty, and after she left my dad, we moved back to Iowa with her parents. Of course she couldn’t live with them forever, so she went to college and rented an apartment for us. She always made sure I was being taken care of and that I was in a safe environment. I never went hungry or cold, I was always with someone I was comfortable being around, and I was always with her. I am very grateful to have her as my mother because I know a lot of women couldn’t handle that situation. She made it through, though, and I was her number one priority. I was so important to her that her parents forced her to go out and meet someone new. After about four years of being on our own, she met my