My mother’s hands are always busy. Never resting. Sometimes chopping vegetables, ironing the clothes or quickly cleaning the mess from around the house, which I and my younger brother have made. I used to think it was just “Mother stuff,” you know? Like, that’s just what mothers did, whether it was house chores or yelling. But then I started noticing ....

Like, that time she had that killer cough, the kind that shook the whole body. She still made breakfast, packed my lunch and kept giving me the instructions to take care of myself. However, when I had a cough, I lay there in bed and she was the one bringing soup and medicine to me. But she didn’t lay down or took rest in her cough.

I noticed she looked tired, really tired, but she didn’t stop. Didn’t even slow down. As I came back home, she still looked tired, but she asked me about my day. Yet, I didn’t bother to ask how she was doing.

Then I noticed my sister, Zara, who is older than me, I saw her studying late at night, books piled up. She’d get up early, make tea for everyone........

© Dawn Young Magazine