Brenda was never meant to live long enough to bring Mitch into the world. Shortly after being born, she was given a prognosis of living a very short life. Then another prognosis. Time and time again she managed to outlive each prognosis. She was a fighter. She even outlived 2 cardiologists, with a 3rd passed shortly after she did.
As a child, Brenda was branded as being mentally retarded. In those days, no one fully understood was dyslexia was or how to deal with those who had it. So instead of going to school and doing the normal things kids did at the time, she was tasked with cleaning chalk board erasers. Unbeknownst to everyone, she was actually listening and learning and would ultimately graduate high school as an adult much later in life, largely due to Sesame Street. And thankfully to her diagnosis Mitch was able to see his own struggle with dyslexia.
Eventually Brenda was tossed out on to the streets by her father, forced to turn to a life of prostitution, before ended up locked up in a mental hospital. She would go on to meet the man who became Mitch’s father and would have Mitch, one of 4 children she had. Brenda was there for Mitch’s high school graduation and so badly wanted to be there for his boot camp graduation, if only the money had been there to do so. Brenda was the one person Mitch truly wishes could have been there when he finally managed to graduate college, but she had been called home a few years before. Her passing though is what set him on his path of having the compassion he would need for others & to get through his own struggles.
Brenda’s fight was instilled in Mitch. When she was given an opportunity to go back to high school as an adult, being told she could at best get her GED, it was her fighting spirit that not only got her a diploma, but helped her graduate valedictorian and be featured on the news. She was given a 2 year grant to complete her education and she completed everything in 10 months. During that time she was in a wheelchair for a fractured foot and blind after dying on the operating table during a triple heart bypass surgery, regaining just enough sight to be considered legally blind. Much like Mitch, Brenda knew her own struggle. And much like Brenda, Mitch knew he needed to fight to overcome his own struggles. Dyslexia it turned out was not the only thing passed down to Mitch from his mother.