My mother was a helper. 

When I was little, she helped our girl scout troup get organized and get badges and have lots of camping trips.

When I was a teenager, she often helped out my friends by letting them stay with us, making sure they had food and a safe place hang out.

When I was in my 20's, my mom was helping others - her fellow students at school, clients at the various places she interned and practiced and me, because I seemed to really need a lot of help in my 20's.

When I was in my 30's, my mom was helping people all over the place! Her clients, the children she worked with at her job, my husband and I, her grandbabies, Mike.

My mother always tried to help out where she could, how she could.  

When I was 18 or 19, my mom went back to school. She started out taking community college classes at DVC in the evenings after work. She worked and studied and in 2001, she graduated San Jose State University with her Bachelors Degree. In 2003, she received her Masters Degree in Psychology. 

It had taken almost 10 years at that point, but she was the first person in our family to get a Masters Degree and I was so proud of her.

I remember all the various places she worked to get all her hours and training done. Dropping her off and picking her up, packing her crutches in and out of the car. I don't know how she did it, but she did. No matter the challenge, she just kept on going.  

My mother was SO excited to finally become a grandma! And there was nothing she loved more than her granddaughters. She had all the patience in the world for them and loved nothing more than just hanging out with them, talking with them and taking lots and lots of photos! 

Even when we moved, which we did several times, she visited frequently and made sure she didn't miss out on the girls' lives.

One of her favorite things was buying the girls clothes. Not just everyday clothes, but fancy dresses the girls could take photos in. Every year since they were tiny, my mom would start surfing the princess dress websites for the perfect dress for each girl. She had really amazing taste and the girls always ended up with gorgeous dresses. In most of my favorite photos of my girls, they are wearing dresses their grandma bought them.