To the world’s best mom,

Happy Mother’s Day.

I don’t say it enough, but you are the reason I know what love looks like in real life. Not the easy kind — the kind that stays up late, that sacrifices, that shows up bleeding and still chooses to be gentle.

I think about the things no one else sees. The late-night pep talks when my world was falling apart. The way you remember exactly how I like my eggs, like it’s a sacred detail. How you pick up my call every single time, even when I know you’re tired, even when you have every reason not to.

You taught me how to be kind when cruelty would’ve been easier. How to show up for people when walking away would’ve cost me nothing. Those lessons live in my bones now. No lecture, no book, no man could’ve given me that.

Iya Benji — that name carries so much. You gave me life, and you gave it to me with purity, with sacrifice, with your whole self. You were my first breath, my first home, my first teacher, my first glimpse of what God looks like when He puts on skin. You’re the one who whispered into my life that God is my strength — and because of you, I’ve never walked alone.

Mom, you are my safe place in a world that rarely feels safe. You are the only cheerleader who never left the stands, even when I was losing. I notice everything. The silent prayers. The swallowed worry. The way you love me without keeping score. I notice, and it wrecks me with gratitude.

If I had a thousand lifetimes, I still couldn’t repay you. So I’ll say this instead: I hope today bends the world a little to honor you the way you deserve. I hope you feel, even for a moment, how deeply you’re seen and how fiercely you’re loved.

You left me and my siblings in a world, I hardly imagine but you never left without telling me that the world is a market place, little did I know you are already giving me your compassionate and uncompromising farewell. However your legendary impact remain guarded.

I love you beyond language. Beyond measure. Beyond what this page can hold.

Forever your son,
Benji