My Family

By Marina Hong

I am the eldest in my family. I have two sisters and two brothers. When I was 10 years old, my dad passed away. My mom had been working very hard since my dad died. When my dad was alive, he took care of everything. He was a very responsible man and a good father to all of us in the family. He provided us shelter, food, paying bills, and school fees. Since my dad passed away, my mom has to take care of everything. She’s never been to school and doesn’t have any education at all. But during that time, she doesn’t have any choice but to find work to provide food, pay bills, school fees, etc.

When we were little, my mom had to leave us behind to go to work. She had to leave early in the morning and got back at 7 p.m. She has been working very hard all her life. At that time, my younger brother was only two years old. I and my twin sister are helping a lot in the house like cleaning and taking care of my brothers and sister. Consider that we are very young, 10 years of age. And we had to help a lot already. And at this same time we had to walk to school without money and food.

Though all of us went through a difficulty and have had a very hard life at times, we never regret and we always remember all the good and bad times. I am very proud of my mom.