Mom is a much kinder and gentler person in her old age but she can still be fierce. Understanding her upbringing sheds more light on how she became the person that she is...She grew up tough as nails because she's had a hard life. Her father was an alcoholic, her mother was an exiled debutante. Her family was dirt poor and she had many siblings. She was far from being the favorite child. She did not have a happy childhood and fought through cruelty at school. Her last name was Durbin and other kids picked on her entire family. I'm not sure where the name originated, but the family was known as the "dirty Durbin's." She still takes offense when she hears that moniker.
Her Dad would come home drunk at night and get all the kids up and make them sit and listen to his drunken blabbering. I've never heard much about her mother except that she would threaten to make her kids sleep on the floor "with the rats" if they didn't behave. Mom is still deathly afraid of mice or rats.
I'm not as close with my mother as I was with Dad. I don't know her entire story because she doesn't sit and talk about it with me. Often we argue and clash but my personality is much more like hers than Dad's. We're very much alike and I'm happy to share some of her traits as well. Strong willed, fierce fighting, straight talking and sometimes downright mean...the similarities are uncanny. Obviously, she's been a huge influence in my life, even though I don't always understand her. She'll always have my respect and admiration.
