The Life Of One Courageous Woman

~The Life Of One Courageous Woman~

A woman who had one lung, her heart moved side to side which also had a hole in it, and she had asthma and bipolar disorder. Read this article and find out more about this extraordinary woman, who is also my mom.


My mother was a extraordinary woman. She was kind, generous, soulful, happy, and very sick. Her name was Debra. She had a hole in her heart, her heart moved side to side, she had one lung, Asthma, and she also had Bipolar Disorder. In her later years she would develop Lyme Disease, and hepatitis c from a blood transfusion she received when she had open heart surgery. She loved music, fashion, dancing, was a great artist, and she loved animals.
When my mom was born she was very small and skinny, due to her sickness. The doctors said she wouldn't live to see her first birthday. But they were wrong. In fact she lived to see thirty-nine more years. Everything the doctors said she wouldn't be able to do she did.
My mom never let her sickness get in her way. My mom was a very strong woman. She fought through her sickness for forty years. That's why she is the strongest person I know. She fought for her rights and her kid's rights. She had two children, Brandon and myself, Olivia. The doctors said that she wouldn't be able to have children, but again they were wrong.
'It took forever for her to pick out the names, they had to be just right." According to my aunt Margurite. Through all that she was going through she still was able to take care of herself and my brother and I.
When she was younger and going through school she missed a lot of days because of her heart problems. Even though she was a honor roll student she had missed too many days of school. She would have to repeat the year. So her mother, my grandmother, fought for her daughter to have a tutor come to the house to make up the missed days, so she would be able to graduate the sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. As Debra got older she would become bored at school, so she decided to quit at the age of sixteen. In her later years she would go back to school to receive her G.E.D, and go to secretary school, and receive honors.
Because of her bipolar disorder, which was not diagnosed as a teenager, she would have difficult years ahead. But by the time she was in her early thirties she was diagnosed correctly with Bipolar Disorder. Medication was given to her, and her choices in life would become much easier for her. "She was very hot headed. She would blow up when she was angry. After Debra was able to calm down, she would look at the problem and determine what action would be taken. She could then calmly sit down and talk things out. She had a very high IQ. She would research if needed and deal with problems in the appropriate order." My aunt said. When she was a child there were many things she wanted to do but would not be able to do because of her disabilities. This is how she became an artist. She would sit with her older brother Richard, and he would teach her how to draw and paint. The artistic ability runs in the family. She had three brothers, Richard, James, and Francis, and one sister, Marguerite.
When my mom hit her teenage years she got into music. Her favorite type of music was Rock n' Roll. When she got older she liked more types of music. Her favorite bands were, Juthro Tull, Beatles, Elton John, Kiss, and Prince.
My mom would always have many friends even as a child. Everybody that met her fell in love with her. She had a great sense of humor.
Her first job was working as a cashier at Bradlees. Her second job was working as a helper at a daycare center for disabled child. Later on she would become a pizza maker at Pizza Wheel in Kenmore Square were she went to work with Brandon's father. Paul and Debra would leave Pizza Wheel to become store manager's at a Domino's Pizza in Boston. After Brandon was born Debra moved to Maine for a year were she was a store manager at another Domino's. Because of her working many hours at the store it became to strenuous and she was to have her first heart attack. She would have to leave Maine to come home to Boston. This is the time she had open heart surgery. In the years to come she would learn to drive a car, go back to school, and meet my father. After two years with my father Joe, she had me!
When I was nine months old we all moved to the Harwich on Cape Cod. Later on she became a single mother with Brandon and I. It was very hard for her to take care of us but she handled it very well. We lived there for eight years. During this time we met more friends that became very helpful to my mom and Brandon and I. We had five cats at different times, a gerbil, ginee pigs, we babysat a dog and a rat named Larry from my school. One time my friend and I found a baby turtle walking on the street. We brought it in the house and my mom said to put it in the bath tub with some water because we were going to the store at that time. When we came back she told us that we had to return it to its natural habitat. So Brandon and I took the turtle in the woods were there was a pond and let it go. My mom loved to feed the birds so she built a beautiful bird house for the birds to feed at.
My mom loved to work in the garden and write. Our yard always had a beautiful garden with many beautiful flowers. She could make anything grow. During her time working in the garden she got Lyme Disease. At the age of forty she was having a tough time breathing so she had to be put on oxygen. She had pneumonia five times in the last seven years which was making her lungs weaker each time. She was told by the doctors that stents could possibly help take some pressure off her heart, since it was enlarging. They would also help with her breathing. She agreed to the operation. She went in and they wanted to put in eight stents. But because Dabra's vessels were very small the operation took to long so they put in four. She would need to go back in eight weeks to have it done again. Her breathing capacity increased some. She had eight more weeks with her children. Debra returned to the hospital made it through the operation and was up in her room. She was laughing and making jokes with her surgeon. She was doing well in those moments when it changed suddenly. She told the doctor she felt strange and closed her eyes. She was gone. It was a blood clot. The surgeon and the nurses tried to revive her but it did not work.
It was a end to a exceptionable courageous life. *