I realized that, while I would never be my mother nor have her life, the lesson she had left me was that it was possible to love and care for a man and still have at your core a strength so great that you never even needed to put it on display.

Summary

This quote highlights the speaker's realization that they do not need to mimic their mother's life or identity, but they have learned an important lesson from her. The lesson is that one can deeply love and care for someone without compromising their own strength. The speaker acknowledges that their mother had an inner strength that was not always visible externally, emphasizing the notion that true strength lies within oneself rather than in ostentatious displays.

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