Strength, Resilience, Selflessness: A Mother’s love from Mesulumi village

Vishü Rita Krocha
Kohima | May 7  

A mother’s love is universal- and so is her resilience. Here is one of the countless chronicles of a mother’s strength, resilience and selflessness.  

Ngutsolhi-u Letro- now aged around 100 year old, the oldest woman in Mesulumi village under Phek district, singlehandedly raised five children and brought them up good.

  Her husband passed away in the early years of their marriage leaving behind the responsibility of parenting their two sons and three daughters, who were still very young.  

Ngutsolhi-u recall this period as a phase where she struggled most to make ends meet. However, determined to provide education to her children, despite being uneducated herself, she did everything possible to send them to school, except for the eldest daughter, who opted to assist her.  

The centenarian still remembers the hardships she endured.  

“When my husband died, I felt like I was all alone in this world. I had to do everything by myself. I worked alone in the fields, and simultaneously reared pigs and chickens at home. Selling these fetched me some money. I also sold the produce of my farming such as paddy, millet, pumpkin etc so I could pay my children’s school fees,” she explained. Just as hard work has its rewards, her sacrifices have been rewarding even as she went on to see her children accomplish goals in their lives.  

Her two sons became government employees and she was able to see all of her five children settling down in marriage, which is every mother’s dream.  

Today, Ngutsolhi-u has 61 grandchildren and great grandchildren, who, it goes without saying, are her pride and joy. Most of them are educated and are employed in respectable professions.  

She also raised one of her grandchildren, who lost his mother at an early age. He is now an engineer by profession. ‘As a mother, I have hoped to provide for my children and although I am illiterate, I am happy to have sent them to school and watch them grow and succeeding in life,” she told The Morung Express with a sigh of contentment. On the eve of Mother’s Day, Ngutsolhi-u also remembers her mother. “I never realized that life would be so tough until I lost my parents,” she expresses with feeling.  

“I had everything when they were alive but I had to struggle and work a lot harder after their deaths,” she added. Letro admits she has come a long way from where she stood the day her husband passed away. And just like any loving mother would, she hopes her children have healthy and long lives, too.