Mothers like no other

There are few people more precious in our lives than our mothers. So, to celebrate Mother’s Day, we asked moms on Joburg Jewish Mommies to send us special memories, including when they went out of their way to defend their children.

Even war correspondents have families. So when my mother planned a two-week holiday to spend time with her ‘if-I-don’t-see-you-on-TV-I-wouldn’t-know-where-you-are daughter’, the intention was to somehow juggle the trip between reporting and catching up with her. Our parting words as she boarded the plane in Johannesburg were that I’d meet her on the other side. I did. With the news that I needed to leave immediately for Georgia. The call had arrived while my mother was being served beverages somewhere over Africa – Russia and Georgia had gone to war!

What to do? This was a mother-daughter holiday we’d been looking forward to for a long time. And then, as if struck by a flash of genius, it occurred to me that if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. “Mom,” my first words of greeting were as she got off the nine-hour flight, “How do you fancy a trip to Georgia?” Which explains why, a few hours later, correspondent, cameraman, and mother-in-tow were checking into a quaint hotel in Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi.

We spent the week driving around the city with an elderly taxi driver, George, who couldn’t speak a word of English and who had no front teeth. He took an instant fancy to my mother who, in turn, begged us never to leave her alone in the car with him.

One afternoon we found ourselves in an abandoned building where refugees from the war were seeking shelter. We left my mom while we went outside to film. Two hours later, we came back to find her and a Georgian woman hugging and laughing over family photographs – and not understanding a word the other was saying. The star of that trip was my mom! – Paula Slier

I’m a recovering drug addict, three years clean and sober. My mother bear came out and protected me through eight years of addiction. She stood proud, and still called me her daughter. She helped me through the tough times, and made me the mother that I am today. I’m now sober and have an eight-month-old baby girl of my own. My mom joined tough love groups and helped me on the journey to recovery. She never gave up on me. – Roxanne Lubie

My mom has always been there for me. When I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, she was there for me every step of the way. She took me to every doctor’s appointment. She held me when I cried. She protected me from people who made uneducated statements about my disease. She created diabetes camps so that I could meet other diabetics and know that I wasn’t alone. She changed the way the family ate to match the way I had to eat. She gave me everything I could ever need to make this disease easier to manage. She had cancer in 2018, and still managed to put my diabetes before everything she had to deal with. She is my rock! – Michaela Tobias

Only once have I stood up and really defended one of my children. My oldest son was three, and he was being bullied on arrival at nursery school by two boys who were five years old. I waited to see this for myself before I acted. Once I had seen these two bullying him, I quietly went up to the ringleader and whispered in his ear, “If you ever start with my son again, I will break both your arms.” They never went near my son again, and I stopped it before it became a school issue. – Caron Meyerowitz

My late mom, Shelley, was always so strong and brave. I will never forget how when I was pregnant with my twin boys and she was undergoing chemotherapy for stage-four cancer, she scheduled her chemo sessions to make sure that she would be at the birth of her first grandchildren and would have the strength to be able to help and be there for me in the first few weeks of their lives. Her strength and love for us always came first. – Jade Kovacs

My mother is one in a million and a fighter. She brought up my brother, myself, and my twin singlehandedly after our father walked out on us. She fought for her life giving birth to us, and my brother was only two. She then fled a country in a wheelchair to get away from an abusive man with us toddlers. Throughout our lives, it was a huge struggle to make ends meet. My mother must be the strongest person walking. She was always there at school functions in spite of doing two jobs at the time. Recently, she managed to fight to get out of a coma, so I say my mom is a true warrior. She has beat all the odds in life. – Tracy Lubie