“The Iron Lady of the Sea.”
The three children grew up under their mother’s hard work.
Liam, the eldest, often helps his mother pull the net after school.
Ethan, who is more quiet, likes to mend the net so that his mother can rest.
Noah, the youngest, is the youngest but knows how to cook and clean the house.
In the evening, the four of them sit around the old table, the oil lamp casting shadows on the wall.
Grace tells her stories about the sea, the waves, and resilience.
Life is not easy.
There are days when the sea is angry, Grace cannot go out to sea, the whole family only has a pot of thin porridge and a few dried fish.
Once, she fell while pulling the net, her leg hurt for months but she still tried to drag herself to the beach every morning, because “if she rests, the children will go hungry.”
Many people sympathized with her and advised her to remarry, and even a good man proposed.
But Grace just smiled:
“I have three sons, they are enough.
As for men, I am afraid.”
Time passes like the waves of the sea.
Grace’s black hair is now streaked with silver.
Her three sons have grown up.
Liam has passed the entrance exam to California Technical University, studying and working.
Ethan has received a scholarship to study Information Technology in Los Angeles.
Noah, the youngest, has followed his father’s footsteps but in a different direction – becoming a marine engineer, traveling on international ships.
The day she sent her children off, Grace stood on the beach, watching the bus disappear, her eyes blurred by wind and tears.
“The children are gone, now it’s just you and me, oh sea.”
Twenty years later, the town of Monterey has changed, but Grace’s wooden house still stands there – simple, old, but warm like a mother’s heart
One morning, as the sun was just rising, the villagers saw three luxury cars stop at the beginning of the dirt road leading to the sea.
Out of the cars stepped three men in white shirts and shiny leather shoes.
No one recognized that they were the three sons of the “iron lady” of the past.
The three of them ran towards the wooden house.
“Mom!”
Grace turned around, thinking she was dreaming.
The three children hugged their mother, tears mixed with smiles.
That day, the whole town gathered in front of Grace’s house.
On the sandy land near the beach, people erected a large sign that read…
Grace’s Hope Academy – A charity school for fishermen’s children.”
The school was spacious, painted white, overlooking the vast blue sea.
The three brothers Liam, Ethan, and Noah built this school together, named after their mother to honor the woman who sacrificed her whole life.
During the inauguration ceremony, Liam represented his brothers and spoke, his voice choked with emotion:
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