A Lasting Impression

A Lasting Impression, an essay written by Debra Anderton. Debra wrote this essay about the person who left the longest impression on her. That person would be her mother. When Debra’s mother was growing up, she had nine brothers and sisters. Debra’s mother dropped out of school, so that she could help her raise and provide for her siblings.

When her mother got older, she married and had four children, one of them being Debra. Her father passed away when she was younger and her mother became a single parent. Debra’s mother had to then take on two jobs to provide for her children but then had to rely on her own parents to help raise her children. Debra made up her mind when she was younger that she was going to start working at fifteen so she could help her mother out. At fifteen, her plan did not quite work out, her mother got married.

This is when both of their worlds got turn all around. Debra’s stepfather became abusive to her mother and became an alcoholic. Debra’s mother did nothing about it and just took the abuse. Through the years her mother couldn’t deal with it anymore and also became an alcoholic. Debra finally had to find the courage in her to tell her mother that she was an alcoholic and that she need help. The mother finally made the decision she was going to try an stop drink but she didn’t want anyone’s help. Her mother past away a few weeks later due to not getting any help.

Debra said “I vowed that I would do my very best to be the mother to my children that my mother was unable to be for me. It is, without a doubt, her amazing strength, generosity, and love that gives me the courage today to proceed forward in whatever life has in store for me. My mother will always be a lasting impression to me (Anderton 43-44).” This is a powerful statement that she said. It shows that she does not want to go down the same road that her mother went down. She wants to be a mother and give her kids a better childhood and life then what she had.

Alcoholism is very common today and most of the people who become an alcoholic don’t want to admit that they are. They don’t want to seem like they are weak and have to rely on alcohol to solve their problems. Only if they could just say they need help, it could save their lives. I believe that Debra’s intend audience is someone who has been affected by someone who has been an alcoholic or someone who was an alcoholic. Also, another intended audience she could have been focusing on is someone who was raised by a single parent.

By: Brittany B.