By Marc Mero
My mum would be there, to all my sporting events – let’s say I was playing football. My mother would be on the sidelines, and if the player on the field starts going one way, my mother would go like “Marc get up… get up” and I’ll be like ”O my gosh!” I get in the huddle with the other guys and they go “Marc, is that your mother?”. I go “No I never saw her before…”
The greatest gift my mother ever gave me was that she believed in me. I’ve overdosed on drugs on three occasions where I should have been dead. But I believed I was kept here for a reason. You show me your friends, I will show you your future! How do I know this? I hung out with losers and I became the biggest loser of all, because I gave up everything I dreamt about as a little boy – because of who I chose to surround myself with.
My friends drive me home at two, three, four in the morning. We’ll be drunk and high, laughing in the car. We pop in front of my house in New York, and they go like “Marc Marc, the light’s on”.
I go like “O man! My mother’s up!”
My mum wouldn’t go to bed until she knew her son was still alive. I’d walk in and she’d say:
“Hi, Marc, how was your night?”
“It’s good mum, just gonna go to bed…just”
“Can I….Can I talk to you for a minute?”
“Mum I’m tired, I’m just gonna go to bed…just”
“Marc! I haven’t seen you all day and all night, can I please…..talk to you?”
“Maannn! Just leave me alonnnne! YOU bug me!” – I’d SLAM my bedroom door!
And she was the one person who believed in me…..
I was on a worldwide tour when we wrestled overseas in Japan. After my wrestle match I went upstairs to my hotel room and I fell asleep. There was a knock on my door at three o’clock in the morning. I got out of the bed and looked through the safety window and I could see, it was the Japanese promoter. So I opened the door and he said, “Marc, you need to call home. There’s been an emergency!”
I went down the hotel room to phone and I called back;
“Hey, what’s going on?”
“Marc, I don’t know how to tell you this!”
I said “Just tell me what happened?”
And they started crying “Marc… I can’t tell you…”
I said, “Just….say it”
“Marc, your mother died!”
I just threw the phone down. I ran out of my hotel room. I took the elevator to the lobby and when the doors opened up I just ran down to the streets. There were no cars, and there were no people. It was three o’clock in the morning. I walked in the middle of a street in Hiroshima, Japan. I remember looking up and saying;
“Mum, I AM SO… SORRY”.
I flew home for her funeral and I was so nervous to walk up to her casket, so I just stood away in the back. And I kept looking from a distance and kept thinking to myself;
“Mum, please wake up…please get up”
And then I finally got the nerve to walk up to her. As I got closer, I could see my mum for the first time! She was so beautiful. She was dressed in white and she looked gorgeous. I just stood over and I said;
“MUM, YOU ARE MY HERO! EVERYTHING I AM, EVERYTHING I HOPED TO BE – IT WAS BECAUSE OF YOU….YOU LOVED ME SO MUCH, YOU GAVE ME A LIFE, YOU’RE THE ONLY ONE THAT EVER BELIEVED IN ME”
How did I repay her? By getting drunk? By getting high? By getting stupid? By hanging out with losers…..for WHATT? All she ever wanted to do….was TALK to me. I wish I could talk to you now mom! I wish you could see what I’m doing! Why couldn’t I have been a better son?
We are defined by our choices. But if you surround yourself with people involved in drugs, alcohol and pills, it’s a dead end. I’m not here to preach to you! I’m here to tell you I lived that life! It leads to broken hearts, broken relationships, broken dreams and death! For WHATT? To get high?
If you have a mother or a father….when you go home, tell them that you love them.
My whole life was about being rich and famous. I had to be a millionaire! I had to win the race! I had to win the race at the expense of my marriage, my family, my friends…for WHATT? To be all alone in the world?
I learned what’s truly important, and that is, how precious this gift of life is…and our families, and how quickly they could be taken away…
I no longer live in time, I live in moments. It’s not what’s in your pocket that matters. It’s what’s in your heart that truly matters.
Love….
Love is just a word….until somebody comes along and gives it meaning.
You…
You are the meaning.
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Qur’anic Wisdom::
1. And We have enjoined upon man, to his parents, good treatment. His mother carried him with hardship and gave birth to him with hardship, and his gestation and weaning [period] is thirty months. [He grows] until, when he reaches maturity and reaches [the age of] forty years, he says, “My Lord, enable me to be grateful for Your favor which You have bestowed upon me and upon my parents and to work righteousness of which You will approve and make righteous for me my offspring. Indeed, I have repented to You, and indeed, I am of the Muslims.” (46:15)
2. And We have enjoined upon man [care] for his parents. His mother carried him, [increasing her] in weakness upon weakness, and his weaning is in two years. Be grateful to Me and to your parents; to Me is the [final] destination. (31:14)
3. And We have enjoined upon man goodness to parents. But if they endeavor to make you associate with Me that of which you have no knowledge, do not obey them. To Me is your return, and I will inform you about what you used to do. (29:8)
4. Worship Allah and associate nothing with Him, and to parents do good, and to relatives, orphans, the needy, the near neighbor, the neighbor farther away, the companion at your side, the traveler, and those whom your right hands possess. Indeed, Allah does not like those who are self-deluding and boastful. (4:36)
5. And your Lord has decreed that you not worship except Him, and to parents, good treatment. Whether one or both of them reach old age [while] with you, say not to them [so much as], “uff,” and do not repel them but speak to them a noble word. (17:23)
6. And [recall] when We took the covenant from the Children of Israel, [enjoining upon them], “Do not worship except Allah; and to parents do good and to relatives, orphans, and the needy. And speak to people good [words] and establish prayer and give zakah.” Then you turned away, except a few of you, and you were refusing. (2:83)
7. Say, “Come, I will recite what your Lord has prohibited to you. [He commands] that you not associate anything with Him, and to parents, good treatment, and do not kill your children out of poverty; We will provide for you and them. And do not approach immoralities – what is apparent of them and what is concealed. And do not kill the soul which Allah has forbidden [to be killed] except by [legal] right. This has He instructed you that you may use reason.” (6:151)
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