Moms Admired As Role Models, Nurturers and Cooks

Patch trekked to various places in Long Beach recently to ask people a simple question: What do you most admire about your mother?

Here are some of the answers we received:

• "She plays with me, and I love her because she makes me good food, macaroni and cheese and peanut butter and jelly." ~ Alexandra Fiumara, 3, said about her mother, Jayme.

• "My mom is simply a good person. She does things for others without expecting anything in return; it's a kind of selflessness or being unselfish that is very rare in people. She comes from the old school of simply trying to live a good life and do the right thing by people and that I feel is quite admirable," ~  Brian Fahy (mother, Anne)

• "She's very supportive." ~ Jennifer Johnson (mother, Polly).

• "It's kind of hard to put just one quality about my mama that I admire.  She is the strongest woman I have ever known, both emotionally and physically, and she's humorous. She's always been able to see the amusing side of things and has taught us all to view life from an optimistic point of view. " ~ Anne Carlo (mother, Anne Kearney).

• "She's a good cook and she doesn't scream at me when I come home late," ~  Ellen Blas (mother, Maria)

• "What I admire most about my mom is the way she was able to balance work and family life when we were growing up. She never missed anything. I hope to be able to do that myself someday." ~ Maria Soldato (mother, Lucille).

• "That she's friendly and caring." ~ Jhoselyn Alcivar (mother, Margarita).

• "My mother is really intelligent. She was an awesome teacher, extremely laid back, and never got flustered-even with 6 kids, which made the rest of us easy going." ~ Colleen Benisvy of East Atlantic Beach (mother, Bridget McMahon).

• "My father passed away early, and she went to work. She worked hard for us.  I loved my mother's artistic qualities. She painted and sculpted.  I still have her paintings and I treasure them." ~ Louise Delap (mother, Helen Ambrose)

• "Sacrifice. My mom has sacrificed a lot of things for me." ~ Erik Antorbeza (mother, Nancy)

• "My mother is caring and supportive." ~ Zack Frigand of West Hempstead (mother, Patricia)

• "My mother's strength exceeds her. She was always honest with my sister and I, always soft and lovable, yet she always spoke her mind, but she did so eloquently. I believe she molded my sister and I into the woman that she is, while adding the qualities that abled us to stand up and do things for ourselves that maybe she wished she could have done more of herself.   Those characteristics reflect in us as we've grown into woman with our own families. Every time someone complements us, they're actually complementing our mother who couldn'thave done a better job, even if everything had gone perfect in our lives."~ Natalie Sweeney (mother, Linda)