Dear reader,
Thank you for being so interested in contributing to a good purpose. My name is Anita Gallagher, and my life mission is to motivate everyone not to be afraid to live a life he wants to live.
Like many of you, life has given me and still gives many difficult life situations and exams. One of my toughest happened when I was five years old. At that time, my father and his whole family passed away. I stayed alone with my mother and my older sister in a large house, which was not in the best technical conditions either. My mother worked as a teacher, and after my father passed away, she had to return to work very quickly to take care of us financially.
At that time, I was very young and couldn’t understand death properly. I didn’t understand why, and especially where did everyone go?! I remember the days when I was sitting on the window ledge the whole afternoon, wondering when my dad would come back home. We lived directly across from the train station, and with every squeak of the train brakes, I waited with a pounding heart if my dad would get off the train and come back home. The days passed, and my dad did not come back. I started to realize that he would never come back.
My mother pretended that everything was all right, she was so strong! She always waited for my sister and me to fall asleep and then went quietly to the staircase to cry so we couldn’t hear her. I remember that one day I came to her. She sat there curled up on the stairs, and suddenly she looked so fragile! She hugged me and repeatedly assured me that everything would be all right. That was the first time I felt her inner pain.
Millions of questions have come to my mind. What is death? Where do people go when they die? Is there a Heaven? I remember it so vividly. I could sit for hours outside in the grass, and with millions of questions, I watched the sky and the clouds chasing the sky. I was more of an introvert and spent most of my time among adults. I did not search for the company of other children of the same age. I loved to listen to adults and their exciting life stories. I also often hid in the treetops and watched people passing by and the nature around me, where I always felt calm and safe.
However, whatever happened in my childhood, I dare to say that my childhood was happy. The only thing that differed me from “normal” was the absence of carefreeness. Today, looking back, it all makes sense to me. It was supposed to happen. My border of consciousness had to shift because I might never have figured out my life mission if it didn’t.
I will never forget from my childhood the enormous strength and courage my mother had to face every day. I will never forget her hands dotted with protruding veins as they clutched heavy shopping bags and notebooks from the students she had to carry every day on the hill where our house stood.
I won’t forget the long queues for fruit in which we had to stand during the communism. I saw my mom crying when, after two hours of waiting in line for bananas, the lady standing in front of us bought it all, and there was none left for us. The feeling of her despair and hopelessness is something I will never forget!
And just as today I admire dads as they go to school with their daughters for the first time or teach them how to drive their first car, I also observe the single mothers with their children. I can feel their despair and fears if they can do it, whether they will make it in the next month with their finances, and their doubts about being good mothers.
As a child standing next to a single mother, I could see a single mom’s situation from the child’s perspective.
Now I understand their unbelievable strength and determination to fight and often the pain associated with the cruel criticism of society, which, unfortunately, persists in the image of some single mothers.
We can hear comments like, “She shouldn’t have married such a man; It’s her fault,” or “She’s selfish, unable to compromise in her life, so she deserves to be alone!” Or perhaps the worst: “She should have better gone to abortion!”
All the moms who have decided to manage it on their own, no matter the current situation, deserve nothing but admiration and support! And honestly, who knows who we marry? People often hide their true selves behind a mask of a completely different identity. Naturally, they cannot hold such a mask for their whole life, and then we are sometimes shocked about what happened with our “beloved” ones.
Is it selfish when such a mother decides that she will no longer let herself be humiliated and sometimes even physically attack and leave such a man?? Is this selfish??
A conscious mother knows very well that if she stays with her children in a relationship where she is humiliated or even physically assaulted, it will impact her and also harm her children. What behavior pattern can such a child take into adulthood if he sees his father beating or humiliating his mother? Is this the pattern we want to imprint in our children’s subconscious minds?
It is said, “Don’t judge anyone until you have walked a mile in his shoes.”
I have decided to establish the One Ray nonprofit organization for our children because they are our future! And the happier childhood they can experience, the better adult life they can spend. After all, not only them but all of us! We very much appreciate your attention and your support.
Thank you, and God bless you!

Yours