A few months ago, my mother joined the statistics of single divorced mothers who lost their homes due to foreclosure. Initially, I was very upset with her for not telling me she was in a bad economic situation and for allowing it to get to this point. I kept asking both my mom and myself “when did it go wrong? Why didn’t you tell me?” My mother quietly cried, unable to answer these questions.

Of course, how does a mother explain to her daughter that she was trying to silently hold on to a family legacy and maintain the “lifestyle” that we had before she divorced. She did not want us to feel excluded. If I benefited from this choice, which I did, I could not hold it against her now.

In time, I realized that my mother was not alone during her loss and that there are many families experiencing this today. Therefore, with the support of my business partner and husband, I made a conscious decision to share the responsibility and walk forward next to her.

During times of hardship, friends become strangers and strangers become friends. Beyond my mother’s handful of close friends and family, I witnessed acts of kindness from individuals within her community. Everywhere my mom frequented—the laundry, gas station, supermarket, Post Office—somebody took the time to express to us what a remarkable woman my mother is and how once, at a difficult moment in each one of their lives, she had done something personally significant for them. She had voluntarily reached out to help in whatever way she could.