(By JAMES GARIBAY)

Life has a way of throwing curve balls. For Nancy Gonzales, it was when the father of her children died of a heart attack.  

Nancy is the proud mother of six children, four of whom she raised as a single parent. 

Husband Greg owned a successful San Antonio business selling mobile homes when he died in 1990.

“He was a wonderful father and provider,” Nancy says. “Very generous and everyone loved him.” 

When Greg died, the two oldest children were out of the house busy with their own lives.  Nancy still had four children at home, the oldest being a 10-year-old and the youngest had just turned 3.

“My first thought, once the shock wore down, was how am I going to tell my kids?” 

Once Nancy started having children, she always put them first, even when it meant to put herself last. 

Nancy had her first two children right out of high school, so she says she never had the chance to establish her own self as a person.  Her identity was solely as a mother. 

Nancy had to provide for her four children.  But without a college education to give her a helping hand, Nancy struggled at first.  Nancy went on welfare for a while until she could figure out how to provide not just food, but a life for her children.

One thing she vowed to do was to be there for her kids.  “I didn’t want to just leave my kids with a babysitter all the time,” she says. 

When her youngest was finally in school, Nancy went to college. Even with a full school schedule, working to pay the bills and feed her kids, Nancy was present for dinner every night, every sports game, and school plays for all four of her children.

Life became increasingly difficult as the children grew into teenagers.  In the household, Nancy says her children were angry and constantly fighting with each other and with her.

This made Nancy feel hurt and sad because she did not how to deal with four enraged teenagers. 

“I felt like my children were lost and I didn’t know how to help them find their way home,” Nancy says. 

Nancy prayed that her children would find their way and come back home, and things eventually did get better. 

“I saw and realized that there were people much worse off than we were,” says Jessica, Nancy’s middle daughter.    

Her children began to open up to her and try to communicate what they were feeling.

“It wasn’t that I was mad at mom,” says Christopher, Nancy’s youngest child. “I just didn’t know how to tell her or anyone what was going on with me.” 

Nancy never had any specific plans or road maps for her children.  She simply wanted them to be happy in the life that they chose. 

Life threw a massive curve ball at Nancy. Instead of letting the situation get the better of her, she took it in stride.

“I wouldn’t change a thing.  Your children are your life.”