Every day should be Mother’s Day because mothers do so much for their families. We asked readers to send in stories of why their mothers are the best for our annual Mother’s Day Contest. Marta Gietzen wins a special gift, to be pick it up at our office, 1507 S. Alexander St. #103.
WINNER
A Resilient Spirit
My mother, Marta Gietzen, is currently battling stage four pancreatic cancer. Now, this in and of itself does not or should not give her a better chance at being reviewed or put her above others for this essay, but it makes her that much stronger in my eyes and of those around around her.
I was told of this article by a friend and suggested I write about my mother because she is just that amazing of a person that every life she comes in contact with she changes it for the better.
Before finding out she had pancreatic cancer, my mother had just become a breast cancer survivor and had a double mastectomy. We thought our lives were going to be changed and perfect because she had beaten this horrible monster and the odds — only to find out there was another horrible monster waiting around the corner.
My mother didn't lay down. My mother didn't accept the outcome, which is indicative of her “Marta-ness." My mother did not take what was handed to her — which would have most certainly been a death sentence to others.
She chose to fight. She chose to say, ‘No.’ And she chose to stand her ground.
Five years later we still have her!
We still laugh. We still cry. We still play. We still Love.
My mother does not sit around and ask, ‘Why her?’ She always keeps a positive outlook.
She is the mother of five girls, the grandparent to 13. We don't always make it easy on her. But we keep her standing. We keep her fighting. We make sure she always keeps going.
I have four small children. She means the world to them. Whether she's sewing a tunic for my smallest child (who, all of the sudden, is into tunics) or she's sewing the world's biggest baby blanket for my oldest child, she’s always doing something for them.
She's always picking someone up or dropping someone off. She’s always making an appearance. She’s always showing up — all the while planning activities around chemotherapy, which she has every other Thursday.
Does she complain? No. She just figures out a way to get it done.
I know my mother is amazing. I don't need an essay and I don't need a newspaper and I don't need anyone to tell me so. I've always known it from the bottom of my heart. I knew it as a small child when she used to take me outside to eat lunch or when she would watch the 9,000 endless shows I had made up for her at the end of a long day.
I know it now as an adult. I just want the whole world to know it like I know.
My dad served two tours in Vietnam. She had her first baby by herself, and then they had four more.
My mother has raised us. My mother has worked tirelessly. She has had two beauty shops, been a private investigator and done businesses. She and my father have worked their fingers to the bone. She has done everything she could ever do for her children and grandchildren.
She has never gotten a huge reward. She never needed one. She never asked for one. She never got huge recognition for being the person she is, but she's touched so many lives and done for so many other people.
Even late in life, she went back to college and finished her degree to show us it’s important.
It would be a wonderful tribute for her to see a tangible dedication of what a person she is and what an asset to this life she has been — of how she has touched this world.
— Jaime Gietzen-Jones
HONORABLE MENTIONS
To any length
I believe my mom, Kathy Pease, is the best mom because growing up she always put my sister, father and I first.
My mother has never given up on any of us and has worked late nights and early mornings to provide for us. She is a mother, best friend and wonderful person to talk to.
I suffered through addiction. She went to any length to get me into treatment (I am seven months sober and can't thank her enough) and drove to Fort Myers twice a week from Plant City to see me on visitation and take me home on Sundays.
She was alone for six months because my father took a better job on our family cranberry marsh in Wisconsin, where we reside now.
She put her life on hold to help better me as a person. I am so thankful for that. I feel no other mom would put up with the things she has, but that is why she is the best mom.
— Tiffany Pease
When Mom is gone
Mothers deserve a lot more credit than they get. Who else would wash the dishes, do the laundry or make school lunches?
We never really realize how much mothers do. We just come home, expect the house to be clean and dinner made. When Mom is gone everything falls apart.
Not only do they love us unconditionally, they also teach us how to live life to the fullest. Whether making meals or even the smallest things, such as emptying the trash for you, they deserve all the love they can get.
Love you, Mom.
— Alyssa Stahl
Unconditional love
My beautiful mom’s name is Tracy. I could write a novel on how great of a mom she is, but for now I’ll brag about what I find is the best.
She has been my rock since I was born. After all, I am one of the few who knows what her beautiful heart sounds like from the inside.
She is more than a mom. She inspires me, she guides me, she has never turned her back on me and, most of all, she loves me!
She has taught me how to me a great mom myself. She has taught me life is fragile, to never take a single second for granted.
There are way more reasons why my mom is the best mom, but the most important reason, to me, why she is the best is because she is always there to catch me when I fall. She has showed me the true meaning of unconditional love. My mom is the best!
I love you, Mom.
— Elissa Denn
Never gives up
My mother, Hilda Rodriguez, is the annual mother of the year and every year to me. She's a hard-working mother who has two jobs.
She started from the bottom and worked her way up. Her school education was middle school.
She was working picking strawberries, and she got tried of that life. She wanted something better for us so she started working at a grocery store.
Years went by, and she wanted to be a bus driver for Hillsborough County. But she didn't have a high school diploma. She was determined to get it. She went online to get it and then took the CDL test.
She became a bus driver, but that wasn't all wanted. She also wanted to be a pharmacy tech. She studied hard and became a tech.
I'm very proud to have a mother who never gives up and wants to better herself. My mother has been working two jobs she loves. She is my role model and the best mother I could ask for.
— Christina Nunez Rodriguez
Memories of devotion
My mother is not mother of the year — she is mother of a lifetime.
She is in the final stages of Alzheimer's and has lost all ability to speak or communicate, but she is still my wonderful mother.
I look at her, and I see the mother that tied my shoes and bandaged my scraped knees with a loving kiss. I see the strong woman who raised two young boys in the early 60s all alone. I see my mother who worked two jobs her whole life to provide a better life. I see a woman who, with only an eighth-grade education, opened and ran a successful business in Plant City for almost 40 years.
When I look at my mother I see love, compassion and the will to be more — and she was more — much more.
She gave credit to customers who she knew would never be back. She hired family to help them out in time of need. She was the strongest person I ever knew.
When I look at my mother I see the woman who would sleep in a chair every night beside a little boy’s hospital bed. I had asthma and bad lungs and spent many nights in the hospital — but never alone. My mother was there.
Her stare is blank and her memory is gone. She might not know who I am, but I know her, she's my momma — the greatest mother in the world.
— Rachel Lynn
Survivor
Looking at my mother, Terrie Jenkins, you wouldn't see anything special.
She is an average woman, living an average life — on the outside.
As her daughter, I can see how extraordinary she is and how much she has been through in life to get to the point she is at now.
My mother was 17 years old when she had me and married my biological father at the mere age of 16. She was born and raised in Plant City, where she then raised me and my brother (who she gave birth to at the age of 19).
By the time she was 20, she was divorced, a single mother to two children and battling cervical cancer.
I often look back at my life and can't remember a single day when I wasn't happy and fed and clothed with a roof over my head. All because of my mother, the same woman who was thrown into motherhood without an ounce of support from her family or her ex-husband. The same woman who worked three jobs to make sure my brother and I had everything we needed. The same woman who survived cancer.
I don't know how she did it. I don't know how she even found the time to be in the car rider line every day to pick my brother and me up from Cork Elementary School. But she did.
Not a day goes that I don’t appreciate what she sacrificed for us. My mother is a survivor. She is strong, beautiful, and she is fierce.
I am now 20 years old, and my brother is 18. She still makes sure we are taken care of, even though I do not live at home. Now that I am a mother, I appreciate her love more than I did before because I couldn't imagine being in her shoes. She is the best mother in the entire world, and she is an even better grandmother. I don't know what I'd do without her.
Happy Mother’s Day, Mom. Tanner and I love you very much!
— Nichole Mock
Tough lady
My mother, Velia Carreon, is a person I know deserves mother of the year, as my mommy is a person who makes sure nothing is ever missing for her children or anyone she meets.
If she knows you need food she would give you the last plate of food she has. She’s a mother who has got me through all my goals and through life. Whenever I wanted to quit, this lady would make sure I didn't and had me back on track. Whenever everyone gave up on me my mommy was always by my side telling me I could do it.
She’s also a minister/pastor to a church, where she's admire a lot by people, and she’s also a mother figure for tons of the church people.
She’s a person who, if you call her for advise or prayer at anytime, would be with you on the phone or at your house at anytime.
My mommy is also a mother/nurse 24/7 to my handicap brother. She’s always with him and meets all his needs — even at night. There's nights she doesn't sleep when my brother is sick. She's doing her mother duties and caring for her child.
And she also finds time to care for her health.
There's tons more about her but if you meet her you would be surprised what a tough woman she is.
— Jeremy Carreon