Dolores, my mother, is extraordinary. She is a woman with a pioneer spirit. She started out in a conventional life, marrying my dad when she was 18 years old, then, after one miscarriage, having six other kids, one after the other, until she was 26 years old. Boom! Six kids in one tiny three-bedroom house, seven years separating the oldest child from the youngest. I am the youngest of the siblings.

The baby, even at sixty something years-old, still the baby.

In 1960, when I was five and starting kindergarten, mom started college. It took her four years, going part-time at College of Marin, a junior college, to finish her prerequisites for admission to the University of San Francisco. Four years later she graduated with honors and a Doctorate in Pharmacy. She was the first person in my family to graduate with a degree higher than an Associate of Arts Degree.

It is an amazing accomplishment for a woman with six young kids at home to earn a doctorate degree. I remember cuddling next to her while she did her math homework. I also remember her talking about Irma, a human cadaver. Mom came home from school, made dinner, and while eating she told us all about Irma. Night after night, she'd go over what she learned from dissecting Irma. No dinner table topic since has made any sibling squeamish.

Considering she accomplished this when women were facing even more overt discrimination than today makes it a feat of epic proportions. Often, she was the only woman in the classroom. Men dominated the pharmacy profession and women hadn't yet achieved the same freedoms as men in pursuing their dreams. Most women were expected to work as homemakers, honorable work, but often not the only job of their dreams. Discrimination by men unwilling to yield was the norm, but Mom was a barrier breaker.

She worked harder than anyone I have ever known to achieve her goal of becoming a pharmacist. During the summers, she taught swimming lessons from our pool in the backyard to make enough money for college tuition. She taught hundreds of kids from the neighborhood.

A few years later, when mom had a good job and had financial independence, she divorced my dad. It was then I found out that her motivation for working so hard was to establish her ability to leave the oppressive environment he forced on her. She eventually remarried to a guy who turned out to be a very positive influence in my life.

All-in-all, her pioneering drive for independent success was a critical factor in her and her family's happiness.

Thanks Mom. I'm proud of you.