And until my grandmother passed away at 12, that is when my mother came back, came to get me because I had nothing but my grandfather there in the house and my mother wanted me to be with her.
My father left when I was two years old, leaving her -- my mother and my grandparents to raise me.
So after a few months, my mother's people sent me and my brother back to this little village in Arkansas to my grandmother, my father's mother who was raising me, and she used to braid my hair.
I've lived here all my life and, before me, my mother lived here all her life and, before her, her father and grandfather.
My friends, when I was growing up, my father was often at sea, and the job of raising my brother, sister and me would fall to my mother alone.
And my mother taught me the most important rule that I ever learned.
Those are the values that my grandparents and my mother taught me.
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That is why I'm standing here today, because of what my mother and grandmother did for me, because of their hard work and sacrifice and unflagging love.
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Now, my mother has arranged for cab to take me and some of my school friends to school.
My mother and the grandparents who raised me instilled the values of self-reliance and personal responsibility that remain the cornerstone of the American idea.
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And so when I went back to Yellowstone, with Ken and my daughters -- that was the first time they had been -- and I'm standing there -- I'm thinking not only about them and the first time they're seeing this, but I'm also remembering back to when my grandmother and my mother had shown me this amazing country so many years before.
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But Chris Blackwell, one of Marley's producers and the founder of Island Records, interceded on my behalf, and Mother Booker agreed to grant me an audience.
President LUIZ INACIO LULA DA SILVA (Brazil): (Through translator) My mother, who was poor, would make me and my brother lift up the sofa so she could clean the dirt that no one saw - just like my government - we expose the dirt that had been pushed under the rug and we never stopped an investigation.
And he stood with me in 1991, when only my mother and my wife thought I had any chance of being elected.
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"My mother had photographed me a lot and I loved the attention, " she remembered.
My mother gave me cartoon books, and I traced them, eventually developed my own style.
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But the first step was just acknowledging me and my mother and offering assistance in such a lovely, low-key manner.
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We were given a recipe for traditional Indian pudding, which I brought home and got my mother to help me make.
My father Leonel and mother Adriana have given me their support and have helped me a great deal and still to this day I can always count on them.
My mother and father had those dreams for me.
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"Dateline NBC" aired my story in 2011, and 37 years after my kidnapping, my real mother found me by seeing me on the show.
But after weeks of being completely overwhelmed, I found a few strategies that helped make my life easier and helped me adjust to my new role as a mother.
My mother hissed at me to walk quickly and avoid eye contact.
And while I was lucky to have a wonderful mother and loving grandparents who poured everything they had into me and my sister, I still felt the weight of that absence.
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