42-year-old Ofelia Martinez was spending time and enjoying the company of all her 10 kids. But when weeks later she started feeling sick and getting nauseous while looking at specific types of food, she thought she has come down with a cold, but a pregnancy test told her otherwise.

Ofelia Martinez, didn’t always have the best childhood like other children did. Her childhood was mostly spent working and taking care of animals so she could to earn money. She tried to earn enough money, to help feed the young ones at home. And to add on to the problems, things at home weren’t the best for her due to her abusive mother.

Life wasn’t the best for her, but even under all those problems, the highlight of her life and childhood was her father. “I remember that every afternoon, after work, he would hug us (her and sisters) and would dedicate time to us. He would play with us until it became dark and he had to go inside to eat and rest,” Ofelia stated. But when he passed away when she was 8 years old, her highlight was snatched from her which made life became more difficult.

Things didn’t get any better for her when she became an adult. She married Leonardo, my now grandfather, hoping her life would turn around. But instead it didn’t, the abuse didn’t leave her side. But when she found out she was pregnant was their first son, she stayed with him through the hard times, just to make sure their son had a better childhood than her. As time passed, the number of kids increased from 1 to 10.  All her ten kids were healthy and a somewhat had a better childhood than her. Everything was better expect the fact that when a kid was old enough to talk and walk by themself, they were put to work.

But after many years of working and finding ways to survive, the whole family decided to move to America: Las Vegas, to be exact. The trip was very difficult, Ofelia and Leonardo brought 6 of the kids with them while my mom, Elena, brought the remaining 4 kids. It took them around a week to finally reach America. When they reached their destination, their life turn upside down, they were able to buy more things to survive and their economic life became so much better.

As months passed by, life was finally stable, all the kids were happy but than Ofelia started feeling nauseous, she thought she was sick, so she thought nothing of it. Until she started growing a little bump and having weird cravings, she knew something was up so she decided to take a pregnancy test. She was given news that she was pregnant at the age of 42, which then gave her more news, they were twins. The pregnancy was very difficult for her because the twins life and her life were at risk. But after a couple of months and one month spent in the hospital, Erica and Daniel, were born healthy. After the birth of the twins, life went to being stable but a few problems occurred.

Ofelia and Leonardo had arguments from time to time so due to this, the twins never had a father at home, the closest father figure they had was their older brothers. But even though they didn’t have a father at home, they had great childhood within themself and had a great relationship with all their brothers and sisters. Ofelia always tried to have good memories with not just the twins but with the whole family. But after many years passed by, life went back to being stable, the family bonded more than ever and Ofelia was enjoying everything. But when Ofelia thought life was finally becoming better, something occurred.

Ofelia was given heartbroken news, Daniel, her 16-year-old son, was leaving to North Carolina to be with his girlfriend. Even after all the attempts of changing his mind, it didn’t work. As the time of his departure was coming closer and closer, she became more heartbroken, she still tried her best to find ways to keep him home but, again, didn’t budge his decision . When it was time for his departure, he left saying goodbye to only one person, his twin sister. As days passed by without his presence at home, home became lonely for Ofelia. After a fews months passed by, Ofelia got news about Daniel, he was becoming a father. “If I could say one thing to him today, I will tell him the be the best father to his daughter, to give his daughter the best childhood she could have”, Ofelia commented.

Even with all the bumps that was occurring in Ofelia life, she always made sure all her grandkids and great grandkids knew this one life lesson she learned throughout her life: even if going through tough times, always be a good person, everywhere you go.