The theme for International Women’s Day (8 March) 2020 is, I am Generation Equality: Realizing Women’s Rights- an opportunity to mobilize global action to achieve gender equality and human rights of all women and girls.
For me I want to honor my great- grandmother who raised me from the age of 4. She was born before women were given the right to vote. I do not know what she was like as a young woman, but as the first female role model in my life, she was strong and outspoken, loving and kind. She was the type of wife who laid out her husband’s clothes, not because she had to, but because she wanted to. She was the woman who took over at their family business each day so her husband could go home and take a nap out of his 16 hour work day. She was a blessed woman who was an equal in her marriage, treated with the same love and respect she bestowed upon her husband.
She taught us to look up at the sky and see what we could dream. She would enjoy the wildflowers we would pick along the way on our morning walks. She was so strong, but also so kind. She never turned away a person in need of a hot meal or a warm coat- always providing a taco and coffee from the store and sending the stranger on their way. She gave knowledge, confidence in myself, a home of security, the beginning of my Christian faith and so many lessons about how to treat others. She passed away before my first child was born. She was my first female role model and remains as a constant reminder to do better, to be better. I honor you Mary Rafaela DeLeon, te quiero mucho.
