Cherisse Moe

They say a moth­er is the on­ly per­son on Earth who can di­vide her love among five chil­dren and some­how each child still gets the whole thing. It is the world’s most de­mand­ing “nine to five”—ex­cept the clock nev­er stops and the job de­scrip­tion changes every sin­gle day.

From the first breath to the first heart­break, a mum is the an­chor in the storm, the per­son you can al­ways count on for a love that is as self­less as it is fierce. It is a jour­ney de­fined by de­vo­tion: the kind that skips sleep to soothe a fever, the dri­ve to bal­ance a board­room and a nurs­ery with­out drop­ping the ball, and the wis­dom to know when to hold on tight and when to let go.

This Moth­er’s Day, WE chat­ted with five dy­nam­ic women—trail­blaz­ers in mu­sic, ti­tans of in­dus­try, and ded­i­cat­ed nur­tur­ers—to talk moth­er­hood. The highs, lows and every­thing in be­tween.

From the WE team, we take this op­por­tu­ni­ty to wish all the in­cred­i­ble moth­ers out there a very Hap­py Moth­er’s Day!

De­stra Gar­cia

So­ca artiste

“I’m ac­tu­al­ly the moth­er of three. I’m rais­ing my two nieces, 18 and 16—they’re prac­ti­cal­ly grown now, but I’ve had them for the last five years. For me, when it comes to Xaiya, the re­ward is see­ing the work I’ve put in­to my child be­ing ac­ti­vat­ed. A lot of times, I’d look at her in com­par­i­son to oth­er kids her age and see the stan­dard she sets for her­self is high. I al­ways used to tell her, ‘You are not like every­body else’—not that she’s bet­ter than any­one, but the stan­dard she has for her­self is high­er. That’s a mantra we have be­tween us, even from the age of three. And now it’s so em­bed­ded in her that she knows that.

The morals and the ethics I’ve in­stilled in her from a ba­by, I feel very proud in see­ing those things ma­te­ri­alise now. It’s in lit­tle things, like the ad­vice she would give to a friend. To see your work man­i­fest as they grow up and make de­ci­sions for them­selves is a great feel­ing. At 16, she doesn’t have to ask cer­tain things any­more; she just ad­justs and knows that ‘I’m not like every­body.’ Those are some of the things I’m most proud of.

Her love for God is sub­lime. I see a lot of a ‘mi­ni-me’ in her—the way she’s car­ing, hum­ble, and down-to-earth. The re­wards are so many it out­weighs the chal­leng­ing parts. The chal­lenge is on a par­al­lel, be­cause there are times I still have to step in and ex­plain why she can’t do cer­tain things, for ex­am­ple, wear­ing a crop top. If I see her go­ing out and I find her out­fit isn’t age-ap­pro­pri­ate, I will tell her and ex­plain there are time­stamps on cer­tain things. She would say, ‘Mom­my, this is the style now.’ And I will say, ‘I know. But gim­mie a lil’ two more years nah.’ An­oth­er ex­am­ple is a lot of her friends got their ears pierced at around 13, and she was on­ly al­lowed to at 16. But I must say, she trusts me and knows that every­thing I do and say is for her own ben­e­fit, and I wouldn’t do any­thing to be­tray that trust. She knows mom is fair. She may ask why, but she trusts I know best.”

Karen Yip Chuck

Pres­i­dent of the T&T Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce & Vice Pres­i­dent, Re­pub­lic Fi­nan­cial Hold­ings Ltd

“The most re­ward­ing as­pects of be­ing a moth­er have been nur­tur­ing and shap­ing the lives of our two daugh­ters, and see­ing them grow in­to con­fi­dent and in­de­pen­dent young ladies. They de­port them­selves with grace and hu­mil­i­ty, and em­brace our fam­i­ly val­ues and tra­di­tions in their own in­ter­ac­tions with oth­ers to­day. This makes me proud and lets me know that we did it right and laid a strong foun­da­tion to­geth­er.

The most chal­leng­ing parts of my moth­er­hood jour­ney have been bal­anc­ing a de­mand­ing ca­reer and fam­i­ly life, which has re­quired sig­nif­i­cant sac­ri­fices over the years. I would have missed some qual­i­ty mo­ments be­cause of work or trav­el com­mit­ments, which are ir­re­triev­able.

Thank­ful­ly, my hus­band and moth­er stepped in those mo­ments when I couldn’t be there, and I’m grate­ful to my ‘vil­lage’ who sup­port­ed me when I need­ed it most.”

Tya-Jané Ramey

Miss Uni­verse Trinidad and To­ba­go 2022

“Noah has been the most ex­hil­a­rat­ing, hum­bling, awe-in­spir­ing, and beau­ti­ful­ly de­mand­ing thing I’ve ever done. Moth­er­hood breaks you open and stretch­es you wide—re­birthing you in­to a body you learn to re­spect more deeply with every re­flec­tion on preg­nan­cy and child­birth. A mind now filled with sa­cred, in­stinc­tive knowl­edge about him you didn’t even know you car­ried. A heart that com­pounds in love dai­ly, sur­pass­ing any­thing you’ve known be­fore.

I am not the same woman be­cause of him. I am stronger, more pa­tient, more ground­ed—grow­ing dai­ly in de­pen­dence on God’s grace. Moth­er­hood has de­con­struct­ed me and re-cen­tred what tru­ly mat­ters, call­ing me not on­ly to be a bet­ter mum­my, but a bet­ter daugh­ter, part­ner, and friend.

In many ways, this mir­rors my jour­ney of com­ing to Christ—the love I’ve en­coun­tered and the trans­for­ma­tion that con­tin­ues to un­fold. I’m not per­fect, but I am be­ing changed by a love that meets me where I am and re­fus­es to leave me there. Even the deep­est love I know is on­ly a glimpse of “how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ” (Eph­esians 3:18). Noth­ing re­mains but grat­i­tude and wor­ship.”

Chris­tine “Chris­sy” Ma­hase Joseph

So­cial me­dia per­son­al­i­ty, pho­tog­ra­ph­er

“Moth­er­hood is of­ten de­scribed as one of the most mean­ing­ful ex­pe­ri­ences in a woman’s life, but it al­so comes with chal­lenges that can re­shape a per­son in un­ex­pect­ed ways. Learn­ing pa­tience was one of the biggest. Moth­er­hood can be ex­haust­ing both phys­i­cal­ly and emo­tion­al­ly. Be­ing a moth­er is a full-time role, and there are days when it feels like there is no time left for my­self.

De­spite this, the re­wards of moth­er­hood are in­cred­i­bly pow­er­ful. One of the most beau­ti­ful parts is watch­ing Is­abelle grow, learn, and be­come her own per­son. Every day brings some­thing new, and it is amaz­ing to wit­ness her de­vel­op­ment first­hand. Her smile and the sound of her lit­tle voice bring a kind of joy that is hard to put in­to words.

The bond we share is un­like any­thing else. It is built on love, trust, and con­nec­tion. Some of my favourite mo­ments are our lit­tle dance and singing ses­sions at home. Know­ing that she trusts me and comes to me for com­fort is one of the most ful­fill­ing feel­ings I’ve ever ex­pe­ri­enced. Is­abelle is tru­ly our biggest bless­ing, and de­spite every­thing, the love I have for her makes every sac­ri­fice worth­while.”

Dr Jacque­line Sab­ga

Med­ical doc­tor and chair­woman, Promise House TT

Be­ing a moth­er is the great­est gift this life will ever give to me.

I nev­er knew how full your heart could be, how your soul soars in this beau­ti­ful role of moth­er.

Moth­er­hood has taught me every­thing, but most im­por­tant­ly, it has al­lowed me to ex­pe­ri­ence un­con­di­tion­al love.

I was blessed with two chil­dren, they are my dream come true, my heart, my soul and my lega­cy. Moth­er Tere­sa has quot­ed so many times about the role of “moth­er” and its var­i­ous forms, that be­ing a moth­er is by our ac­tions and that we can be moth­er to so many and in this gen­eros­i­ty of love, we can heal the world.

As moth­ers, we be­come the foun­da­tion­al plat­forms that our chil­dren stand on to at­tain the ful­fil­ment of their dreams and as­pi­ra­tions in this life, and the chal­lenge is to en­sure that this foun­da­tion is sol­id, in­spir­ing and en­dur­ing.

Shau­nae Mil­er-Ui­bo

Ba­hami­an Olympic track star

The most re­ward­ing part of moth­er­hood has been the per­spec­tive it’s giv­en me. It’s brought a dif­fer­ent kind of pur­pose and ful­fill­ment in­to my life. As an ath­lete, so much of your world re­volves around per­for­mance, goals, and com­pe­ti­tion, but be­com­ing a moth­er re­mind­ed me that there’s a deep­er mean­ing be­yond the track. It’s al­so made me stronger in ways I didn’t ex­pect. I’m more pa­tient, more in­ten­tion­al with my time, and more ap­pre­cia­tive of every mo­ment, both in my ca­reer and at home. And there’s noth­ing like know­ing my chil­dren will one day be able to look back and see what hard work, re­silience, and ded­i­ca­tion look like in re­al time.

I think the most chal­leng­ing part has been learn­ing how to give my­self grace while nav­i­gat­ing two de­mand­ing roles at the same time. Elite sport re­quires so much phys­i­cal­ly, men­tal­ly, and emo­tion­al­ly, and moth­er­hood does too. There are days where bal­anc­ing re­cov­ery, train­ing, trav­el, and be­ing ful­ly present as a moth­er can be dif­fi­cult. But com­ing back af­ter child­birth has taught me pa­tience in a new way. As ath­letes, we’re used to push­ing our bod­ies and ex­pect­ing re­sults quick­ly, but moth­er­hood re­mind­ed me that some things take time and that’s okay. I’ve learned to trust the process, trust my body, and trust my­self more than ever be­fore.