By Erica Hoffman
Being a parent is hard. It’s one of the greatest clichés ever written. It also doesn’t say nearly enough. Being a parent is burdensome; heart-, back- and bank-breaking. The job is downright Herculean.
I know this from experience, not from the wisdom and maturity of being a parent, but from the recollection and hindsight of being an annoying and hard-to-deal-with child myself.
Since I’ve already committed to overusing clichés, I might as well go full-on hackneyed: My mom is a true gem.
She’s my best friend and my biggest cheerleader (at the top of the pyramid). She’s my hero and teacher, the topic of conversation at therapy, my audience and my sounding board. I am incredibly fortunate.
I can be annoying and hard to deal with. Yet this fabulous woman chooses to stand by me even though I’m well past 18 years old.
If you’ve ever heard someone say parenting ends when the child turns 18, that is just not true. Cliché alert: A parent’s work is never done. I’m living proof.
I’m not saying my mom is better than anyone else’s. I’m just not saying she’s not. She took her own advice, never gave up and taught me persistence, one of life’s most important character traits.
My mother is my inspiration, my living, breathing, nagging proof that if you stick to something, don’t give up and pick yourself up when you inevitably fall down, you will succeed.
Until now, this felt like just another cheer in my mom’s compact arsenal of love. But as I get older, that arsenal feels less like a fanny pack and more like a full-on Mary Poppins bag filled with magical mom stuff.
I’m talking about affirmations, great advice (whether I take it or not), ways to make me smile, and most of the time, some chocolate and tissues. Say what you will about her, that woman always has tissues.
Recently she added one more adjective. My mom is now famous.
She always knew she wanted to be a working actress in national commercials. Even though her high school career aptitude test told her she was best suited to be a funeral groundskeeper (true story), she stuck to it.
She went on audition after audition and sent out so many self-recorded monologues that she probably contracted chronic agita while learning how to upload them. But she never gave up.
In late 2021 she was rewarded when the nation was introduced to Medicare Martha on various networks including the Hallmark Channel (who doesn’t watch that in December?), MSNBC, CNN, Fox, ABC and QVC. You get the idea.
Suddenly I’m getting called by people from my past. Old college friends, ex-boyfriends and former bosses contacted me from places like Florida, Tennessee, Nevada and the Bahamas. “Is your mom Medicare Martha?” Each time I beamed with pride. “Yes, yes, she is.”
It didn’t take long before she had racked up around 100,000 views from people who saw the commercial on sites like YouTube and Reddit. She has some fans and some haters, too. My mom has haters on YouTube. She has officially made it!
The comments wouldn’t have been nearly as entertaining if the commercial were not such a smash hit. It helped the company achieve its most successful Medicare open enrollment ever. Thanks, Martha.
So, add Medicare Martha to the list of things my mom is to me. After watching what she accomplished by being persistent, having a clear goal and setting intentions, I’m a believer.
If you want something, stick to it, even when it’s hard. Hang in there even when you can’t imagine a possible way to crawl out of whatever hole you’re in. Persistence is powerful and I’m grateful to have such a good role model.
Happy Mother’s Day to you, Martha, and all the woman warriors surviving motherhood every day.
