The women in my family are independent and invincible. When my mother met my father, she was 22 years old and had her own hair salon. My father was an officer in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) stationed in her hometown. After discharge, my father could not find a job. They moved, with my sister and me, to my grandparents’ house in a farm village.

My grandparents were very disappointed. The whole family sacrificed to send my father to college. My grandmother in particular even hated my mother. One day, my mother left the house without saying goodbye. At the time, I was 7 years old and I even forgot about my own mother. We did not hear anything from her for three years. My father was depressed and sometimes overdrank.

She returned with some money to live together. My father got a job at his........

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