A Mother's Struggle

  My brand new boots crunched against the white snow as I walked towards the front door of the convenience store across the street from my apartment. A woman held the door open for her two small children, then she held the door open for me as well. After looking at the time on the screen of my cellphone, I realized I was about to be late for work. I quickly searched down each aisle, until I finally found a small electronics section. I quickly grabbed the right phone charger for my cellphone, then I made my way to the front of the store.

  Of course, the day that I’m running late for an important meeting, there is a long line of impatient people complaining as they shouted at the customer ahead of them. It wasn’t until the older man in front of me left that I realized the same woman who held the door open for me was the person everyone was making impatient remarks to.

“Come on lady, I don’t have all day”, the older woman behind her snapped.

“Let’s go! Hurry up! I’m already late for court!”, a slim man in a suit shouted in front of me.

  I leaned over to see what the holdup was and I watched as she counted out a handful of coins. The older woman behind the register seemed to be narrowing her eyes at the embarrassed woman as she tapped her fingernails against the counter.

“Mommy, can I get this toy?”, her small son asked, as he tugged on her faded dirty white robe with a small Army soldier toy in his hand.

“No Billy, can you please put that back? Mommy barely has enough money to even buy you and your sister breakfast.”

  I looked on the counter at the two single bananas, a small pack of muffins, and a mini bottle of water. The nervous mother searched her empty pockets repeatedly before looking at the employee behind the register.

“I’m sorry, this is all I have.”

“Ma’am, you’re short three dollars and fifteen cents. If you don’t have enough move out of the way. All of these people have been waiting a long time.”

“I understand, but the wind blew my money out of my hand as we were walking here. I don’t have any more money until I get paid tomorrow. Maybe I can just come back tomorrow and pay the three dollars.”

“Ma’am, this is a store not a food pantry. I’m sorry, but if you don’t have enough money, I need to ask you to move out of the way for the next customer.”

  The saddened mother lowered her head with embarrassment and walked her little ones towards the front door. The small children looked back with confusion painted on their innocent faces before turning back to their mother.

“Mommy, you forgot our breakfast”, the little girl replied, as she tried to stop her mother from leaving.

“It’s okay mommy, I’ll get it for you”, Billy replied, as he attempted to let go of her hand.

“No, Billy. Mommy doesn’t have enough money. We’ll come back tomorrow.”

“But you said that yesterday.”

“Shhh…”, the woman spoke in a hushed voice, before leaving as the two children walked beside her.

  I waited until it was my turn, then I placed my charger down on the counter and I looked at the older woman behind the counter.

“I want to pay for that women’s food.”

“Look”, the woman sighed. “That lady comes in here everyday with some excuse about why she doesn’t have enough money. Don’t feel bad for her. Maybe she should’ve finished college before bringing children into this world. I’m sick and tired of seeing these women have kids that they can’t even feed. Our world would be better without them.”

  I stared at the ignorant woman as I shook my head with disappointment.

“You should be ashamed of yourself. Things happen in life that we don’t plan for. What we need is to come together and help each other. Maybe our world would be better off without ignorant people like you.”

 I snatched the plastic bag out of the woman’s hand, then I hurried out of the store. My eyes quickly spotted the mother carrying the small crying little girl. There was so much snow on the ground, she was forced to walk in the street as the little boy walked beside her with his hand gripping onto her robe for support as he struggled to keep his balance on the ice under his feet. I quickly caught up to the woman and handed her the plastic bag with the stuff she left behind.

“Thank you so much. You don’t know how much this means to me”, the woman thanked me with tears practically filling her eyes. “My husband passed away last month, and I’ve been struggling just to maintain a roof over our heads.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. Do you need a ride home? My car is parked right over there.”

“Thank you, but we live two houses down. Besides, you already did more than enough for us.”

  The woman hung the bag on her wrist, then held onto the little boy’s hand as she began to continue walking. My heart was filled with guilt. Of course, it wasn’t my fault that they were in their situation, but I used to be in a similar situation when I was younger, and my mother struggled to provide for me and my siblings on her own. I knew that the five dollars’ worth of food I paid for wasn’t nearly enough to make a difference, neither was the two hundred dollars I secretly left in the bag for her, but deep down I prayed that somehow things worked out for her and her children.

  Is hard to believe that we are “united”, when we couldn’t be divided as a country anymore than we already are. When I turned around to walk back to my car, I watched as the same slim guy wearing a suit from inside of the store drove out of the small parking lot in a hundred-thousand-dollar car. I don’t know what the future of our country holds, but I do know that it’s not a future I want to raise my children in.