Your Daily Briefing: Immigrant mom inspires her daughter by persevering

Nashville Tennessean
·1 min read

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Good Sunday morning, friends, and happy Mother's Day! This is Tennessean storytelling columnist Brad Schmitt, and I also want to acknowledge that many people, myself included, have complicated or painful feelings and memories around Mother's Day.

And it's a day many of us reflect on gratitude we have for our moms. Take, for instance, McDonald's area supervisor Edith Orozco of Murfreesboro, whose mom moved her and the rest of the family out of Guatemala and into Franklin, Tenn., in 1999.

A 1999 picture of Claudia de Mejia and her family in their rural village in Guatemala. From left, Edith, then 11, de Mejia, her husband, Marco, their youngest, Luis, then three months old, and their oldest, also named Marco, then 13
A 1999 picture of Claudia de Mejia and her family in their rural village in Guatemala. From left, Edith, then 11, de Mejia, her husband, Marco, their youngest, Luis, then three months old, and their oldest, also named Marco, then 13

At the time, a 12-year-old Orozco most definitely was not grateful for the move. She said she remembers the loneliness and isolation of being the only Spanish speaker at Brentwood Middle School.

As Orozco started to learn more English and make friends, she watched her mom, Claudia de Mejia, going day after day to her challenging starter job at a Franklin McDonald's. And then, Orozco saw her mom's hard work pay off as she earned promotion after promotion.

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This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Daily Briefing: Immigrant mom inspires her daughter by persevering