Today’s post is the sixth in the Women Who Inspire Us Series.  You can read the previous posts here.  You may also want to subscribe to my RSS feed, or “like” my Facebook page to catch the upcoming posts.  As always, if you would like to share your inspiration by participating in the series, please contact me.  There is still plenty of time to be involved!

My friend Sarah contributed this post.  I met Sarah back at Neve, and am happy to spend time with her on Yom Tov break, when we are usually in the same city, and, hopefully, at Ben & Jerry’s as well.  She currently lives in Israel with her husband and shmushy delicious daughter (who recently turned one!).

Who is a women you find inspirational?

Debbie Feinwachs

What is her relationship to you?

My mother

Where did you meet her?

Ummm…in utero? :-p

What is inspirational about her (it can be more than one thing, i.e. personality, actions, overcoming hardships)? Can you share a specific memory (or more than one)?

My mother was an extremely strong and courageous person.  She was a stay-at-home full-time mom until I turned 6, at which point she had to go to work as a teacher in order to support us.  My mother managed to raise two kids completely by herself, and she did an amazing job given the lousy hand that was dealt to her.

She devoted herself fully to us and to all her students.  She loved teaching and really cared about her students.  My mother was humble and always surprised to find out that someone knew her, that she had had an impact on them.  She was a bright, positive person, always considerate of everyone.
How has this inspiration affected your life? Do you think it has made you a better person? How so?

I would not be who I am today if it hadn’t been for my mother.  I am, without a doubt, a better person for having had her in my life.  I find myself having a sudden inspiration to do certain things with my daughter and then I realize they are games or things that my mother used to play with us.
When do you find yourself thinking of this person? How do you feel when you think about her?

I think about her all the time.  She died when I was 24, a little over a year before I met my husband.  Usually I feel sad when I think about her, about the fact that she never got to meet my husband, or her grand-daughter (who we named for her).

Every time I look at my daughter I think about my mother (which basically means I think about her all day long).  I daven that my daughter will grow up to be like my mother because I can’t imagine a better person for her to be like.