Mama Hill (Superhero)

I came across a video with the title, “The woman who has as close to a superpower as we can get.” I obviously had to watch it because I have a little superhero of my own. As I watched this video, I immediately fell in love with Mama Hill and I will definitely agree that she has a very impressive super power.

Millicent “Mama” Hill is a retired schoolteacher living in one of the toughest neighborhoods of Los Angeles. She says she represents a mother figure to around 3,000 revolving children. There is only one room in her house that she can call her own because she has opened up her home to the local children as a safe haven for them to get away from a destructive home environment.

If you imagine the kids that are growing up in one of the toughest neighborhoods in LA, you probably imagine that violence, gangs, sex and drugs have affected their lives at some point. This is a very strong destructive cycle that Mama Hill is up against but she has a very strong super power to fight it. Her super power is love.

Mama Hill is genuine proof at how far loving (and I mean genuinely loving) a child can go. As she talks about these kids and teens she says, “They’re looking for family, they’re looking for somewhere to have love and to be accepted.” So this is what she has provided for them.

In the video, Mama Hill tells the reporter that she had a young girl come to her and say that while she was at school, another girl hit her. Mama Hill instructed the young girl to bring the girl that hit her to the house the next time she came over. This changed the violent girl’s life. She gives a tearful explanation of how grateful she is to Mama Hill that proves how far love and respect can go. She says:

            “When I first came, I was always fighting and arguing with people. Here I’ve been put together and saved. Me not having a mom… she’s [Mama Hill] done so much for me like, when I didn’t have clothes, she gave me clothes, food, she could have gave up on me and let me go and I would have still been a bad child, but for her to still be here and still take care of me and help me like this showed me that she really cared. She really do love me.”

Mama Hill gets it. My favorite quote from this video (and I loved pretty much every word that came out of this woman’s mouth) was, “When you love yourself, you don’t want to hurt other people.” Her goal is to stop these kids from hurting so they won’t hurt anyone else. That is a superhero.

We need more superheroes like Mama Hill in this world. She is one woman who is making a huge difference. If children have no one at home to teach them what it means to be given love and respect, they need to be given those things somewhere else. If they don’t have an example of how to show kindness and love, they can’t be expected to show kindness and love to anyone else.  That is exactly what this woman is doing, teaching kids how it feels to be loved and respected, so they can give love and respect to anyone they encounter. The world would be a much friendlier place if there were more people like Mama Hill that devoted their lives to showing kids the joy one can feel by doing something kind for another.

Superheroes come in many sizes, shapes, ages, and forms. Don’t let your circumstances prevent you from being a superhero. 

http://www.upworthy.com/the-woman-who-has-as-close-to-a-super-power-as-we-can-get-2