 Well, my mom's inspired me just to be the strong person that I am today. I get all of that from my mother, so she's my backbone. My name is Mary Ellen O'Connell. I'm also known as Eileen, two friends and family, and I live in Lakewood, New Jersey. I have seven children and 19 grandchildren. I'm very proud of them. She didn't get a lot of support from my father. He gave her $50 a week for seven children. You think he's your dad and, you know, he would give her more just to help her provide, you know, put food on the table, put a roof over her head. My mom really never showed that she was having a hard time. It was hard in the beginning because I had to go through courts to get support for them, which was very minimal back then. And I had to go out and find a job. I had to really sit down and think, now, where do I go from here? How do I take care of seven children? Sometimes she had three jobs. She had her day job. She was waitressing and all, you know, working hard. She did anything that she had to do to work and provide for us. She might have been struggling, but she never showed it. My father, who was my strongest person, he would come out every weekend and help me. My mother died when I was four years old, so he had a taste of what I, he knew what it was like to struggle. My mom would always take in other people's children. My brothers and I, growing up, all the kids came to our house for everything. When my grandpa moved in, he was known as the bicycle man, so he would fix all the kids' bikes in the neighborhood. Everyone loved to be at my mother's house. My mom showed a lot of love, and the more the merrier. She was always so happy to see all the kids in the neighborhood. If I could take somebody with me, another person's child, to a game or to a program at the school, I was very willing to do it, because they always did it for me. I have four boys of myself, which are not easy to raise. And I know I call her, and I confide in her, and she'll tell me, you can do it, I did it, you can do it. My greatest accomplishment is my children. I think they've all become successful in their own ways. They've all got nice careers, and they've got beautiful families. Go out and make friends, you're better off sometimes with somebody who's in the same situation, and become friends and help each other. I thank you for everything you've done for me and my brothers and my sister. We couldn't have done it without you for being the person that you are. You and Pops were the greatest.