Mother-daughter bond remains strong

ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE –

May 9, 2021 – “Not every mom would do that,” Becky, 29, said, fighting off tears as her mom sat stoically across the table watching her youngest daughter, more proud of the demons Becky fought off than of her role in the situation.

After beginning the year-long program at the Healing House and New Beginnings, a Christian recovery facility in Jefferson City, in October 2019, Becky is now living what she calls her best life, and she is very aware of the role her mom played in making that possible.

“When it comes to my mom, I can never repay her,” Becky said, “so I’m going to constantly try to remind her how great she is.”

Nominating Christine for the Best Mom Contest, organized by the News Tribune and sponsored by River City Florist, is one of the ways Becky hopes to do that.

Originally from St. Louis County, the Schuessler family — Christine and her husband, Earl, and their daughters, Debbie and Becky — moved to Jefferson City in 2000 to help Earl’s sister run Pal’s E-Z Stop & Sporting Goods gas station in Brazito.

Over the years, Christine worked as a manager at McDonald’s and in the kitchen at St. Mary’s Hospital. At age 47, though, she decided it was time for a change. She got her GED and started school through a local branch of Linn State Technical College of Missouri to become a therapy assistant; she now works for a home health care company doing physical therapy.

Christine refers to Becky as her gift from God. She became pregnant with her 10 years after her first daughter, Debbie, was born, and while pregnant, Christine’s father, who she was very close with, died.

And together, the mother and daughter survived a near-death car accident when Becky was 4.

Becky and Christine were bonded.