My Mother's Generosity
At my family’s house back in Brazil,there is aways someone arriving to get clothes,to get a bag of fruits or vegetables from my mom’s garden , or to get a piece of furniture we don’t use anymore.We rarely keep stuff that we don’t use, and that is all because of my mom. My mother is very generous and highly opinionated. She believes that if you don’t use it, you should donate to someone else who is in need; she makes sure we all follow that rule.
She is the one who started the tradition. Every time I stay at my mom’s house, I notice that the bell doesn’t stop ringing. And that happens thanks to my mom’s generosity. She has many different types of fruits planted in her garden, like mango, banana, limes, oranges, and guava. She also has a variety of vegetables and herbs. Very often my mother donates them to the neighbors , which once in a while may return the favor, and bring her some fruits that she may not have planted in her garden.
She may also knock on a someone’s door in her neighborhood,hoping that he or she is open to share like she is ,and ask for something that she may have spotted through the fence.
Flowers are her favorite things to ask. Also, she goes through everyone’s clothes , not only hers, to make sure we don’t keep too many clothes we don’t wear anymore.
When I moved out of the house, I left a room full of nice clothes, shoes , a collection of teddy bears, and toys from my childhood . When I came back, there was about 1% left from what I have left. Everything else was donated to poor families, and the toys she donated to their kids . My mother prefers to give her donations in person . She is very suspicious of charity organizations and always jokes about the money, the one she never sent, going to a millionaire’s bank account in Switzerland .
As a good catholic lady that she is, the only place she trusts is the Catholic Church. Still, she might crack a joke or two about the stuff ending up at the father’s wife’s closet. In addition, my mom very often checks with members of our family if they need any help. In the beginning of the school year, she buys many of my little cousins’ books to help her brother out. She wants to make sure the kids have everything they need to have a great education.On weekends, my mother sends meals to my older uncle.
He lost his wife a couple years ago, for the first time in his life , he has to cook and take care of his house himself . My mother fells bad for him because latino males are not used to that. She likes to give him a break once in a while. My mom has positively affected people in my family, in her neighborhood , and in her community . She enjoys helping every one around her . She is a very generous person and is always thinking about helping people in need.
