Paintbrush Patriot

A single mom finds a new calling.

- Andrea Martin 

THERE ARE TWO VERY DIFFERent sides to being a single mom.You’ve got the hectic days working full-time and parenting overtime. But you also have the nights after your child goes to bed and the house is quiet. Maybe too quiet. There’s an emptiness to it. A loneliness.

That’s the way it felt for me three years ago. My days were packed. Getting my six-year-old son, Brayden, off to school. Working hard at the office, designing floor plans for a homebuilding company. Making dinner. Looking over Brayden’s homework, reading to him before bed. I’d kiss him goodnight at eight o’clock, then sit down in front of the TV. No one on the sofa next to me. No one to talk to about my day. Nothing to fill the hours until it was time for me to go to bed.

I know some working moms would give anything to have an entire night to themselves. But I’d had too many in the four years since my marriage ended and my life fell apart. I lost my house, my job. I moved with Brayden to my hometown, Hendersonville, North Carolina, to get back on my feet again.

And I had. I thanked God that I had a good, steady job, that Brayden was happy and doing well in school, that we had a roof over our heads. Outside my son and my job, though, I didn’t have much of a life. I’d tried to reconnect with girlfriends from high school, but they were busy with their own families. Though they were glad to hear from me, I couldn’t expect them to drop everything to hang out. I didn’t have hobbies or other ways to meet people.