A story on Determination, self-reliance and diligence

Write a story on determination, self-reliance and diligence

It had been a wretched life all along -- a miserable childhood stricken with poverty and hunger and a short and uneventful adolescence leading to marriage. Then came the most devastating blow of all. Lannie was just 26 years old when her husband died of an illness. She had no one to turn to -- her friends and relatives, themselves struggling with poverty, were in no position to offer help. From then on it was a difficult life, an uphill struggle. She had nine children to feed. Her husband had left her no savings. She was uneducated and unemployed. Few people would have had the strength to go on but she did, not so much for herself but for her children. Getting up at the crack of dawn, she would work until just before dusk. Before the rest of the household was up, she would have lit the charcoal stove and got the meals ready. She worked as a maid, earning a meager salary. To supplement her income, she sold refreshments before going to work in the morning. Despite poverty, she did not turn to anyone for help. She realized that help never came without strings attached. Single-handedly, she brought up her nine children. It was never easy but as her children grew up they knew that they would one day repay her for the sacrifices she had made. In spite of her hard life, Lannie never complained. She took life and its difficulties in her stride. Her priority was her children, and she was determined that they should have a good education and never suffer the same fate as she had. Her courage and determination spurred her children on. Now, the past is behind her -- thirty years of anxiety, hardship and agony. Today, she enjoys the fruits of her labor -- two of her children are engineers, one is a doctor and another a teacher. Even as she reminisces about her past, there is not a tinge of bitterness because she knows that the toil and hardship were all worthwhile.

wretched   miserable, unhappy       meager   very small in amount       reminisce   to talk or write about past experiences that you remember with pleasure:       toil   hard and tiring work

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