Laura is Celebrating Her Mother Because…

Laura is a CMMB employee

My mom’s name:

Dina Manni

I am Celebrating My Mother Because:

she has spent a lifetime celebrating me and now it’s her turn. Mama Dina, I celebrate your strength and your weakness. Thank you for feeling close even when we are far apart and for always reminding me that I belong and have a place to come home to. For all the years you have lived in the shadows, let me now do everything I can to shine a light on you.

I celebrate you for all the things you are and all the things you have done. It is true that a mother’s work is too often overlooked, too often regarded as obligation or responsibility rather than sacrifice and hard work. Mothers who mother well, are gifts to the world. I know now, years later, when I see all the opportunities that I have and those I have lived, that all I am and all that I can be is thanks to you.

How my mother has inspired me: 

My mother has inspired me in every way that matters.

But I will share one way in particular.

In 1979, my brother Frankie was born. Due to a lack of oxygen, Frankie’s brain was damaged and for every single moment since then, my mother has been caring and fighting and loving. Exhausted, I imagine, and yet never yielding. I am inspired by the way she stays standing in spite of all the challenges. Watching her all these years, I have learned the art of compassion and gratitude.

And despite all the challenges that raising a child with disabilities brings – all the minutes in all the hours in all the days in all those years that it consumes – she never once let me or my sister feel unloved. She is a most remarkable human being and in another time and place – in a world that recognized real strength and courage, my mom would be a superhero. In fact, to me, she is.

I love you, mom. Every day. Thank you for being someone I can look up to (even though technically I have to look down!)