Ah, mothers. What can one do without them?
They raise us, teach us to be upright citizens and offer a shoulder to cry on should life take a bad turn.
Mothers and women, in general, are often referred to as “the fairer sex”.
This is a rather strange sentiment, given how in nature, female animals can be far deadlier than their male counterparts.
The desire to protect one’s home and children is part of a mother’s instincts, and history has shown that even the most meek and mild-mannered can go berserk should their children be in danger.
Here are five stories from around the world of how some mothers went the extra mile to protect their children:
1. Roasting a rapist
Maria Carmen Garcia is a Spanish mother whose 13-year-old daughter was sexually assaulted by one Antonio Soriano in 1998.
In 2005, while out in town, she bumped into Soriano, who was out of jail on parole.
He taunted her about his crime and goaded her by asking her, “How’s your daughter?”, after which Garcia stormed off in a fury.
Later that day, while Soriano was drinking at a bar, Garcia returned with a container of gasoline, which she emptied onto him right before setting him alight.
Garcia was sentenced to several years in prison for Soriano’s death, but popular public support and good behaviour ensured a short sentence, and she was released in 2018.
2. 40kg mum vs 318kg bear
In the region within the Arctic Circle, polar bears are the apex predator of the harsh landscape and are more than capable of taking down a full-grown human being.
One polar bear, however, found out that it had bitten off more than it could chew when it encountered one tiny Inuit woman in 2006.
Lydia Angyiou spotted the polar bear approaching her young son and two friends, with the only thing on her mind being her child’s safety.
She got between the animal and the children and proceeded to wrestle with the bear, kicking and punching it.
By the time someone shot the bear dead, Angyiou was covered with blood but surprisingly, she was unharmed aside from scratches and a black eye.
Given that the bear weighed over 300kg and Angyiou was a small woman at around 40kg, she certainly punched above her weight.
3. Middle-aged mum lifts car
You don’t have to be a small kid to have your mum come to your rescue, as the 1982 case of Angela Cavallo proved.
Her teenage son, Tony, was working beneath his car when the car jack accidentally slipped, causing the car to come crashing down on him, knocking him unconscious.
Rushing to the scene of the accident, Angela who was in her fifties at the time, grabbed the side of the car with her hands and hoisted it up by four inches.
“I was kicking him, saying, ‘Get out, get out,’” she said in a newspaper media interview, also adding that she was praying for her son’s safety throughout the ordeal.
Thankfully for her and her son, neighbours spotted her plight and rushed to help, with the jack being reinserted and Tony pulled away to safety.
4. Mum saves six kids from fire
It was in the wee hours of the morning that the villa of one Emma Schols caught fire, and immediately, she thought of her six children.
She dashed downstairs first, suffering burns on her back as she grabbed her two youngest sons before herding them outside so she could rescue their siblings.
To reach her remaining children, she had to climb the staircase which had caught fire and had grown so hot that the skin on her soles of her feet dropped off with each step.
Despite the pain, the smoke and the fire, she rescued her one-year-old daughter in her crib before handing her over to other escaping siblings.
She sustained burns on 93% of her body, but promised her eldest son before being hospitalised that she would be back soon.
Miraculously, she survived and has since resumed living a normal life with her family as of 2020.
5. Mum fights off kidnappers
In 2020, CCTV footage of a foiled kidnapping in New Delhi went viral, showing a mother fighting off two men attempting to speed off with her little daughter.
The kidnapping attempt was part of a family drama, with the woman’s brother-in-law having hired two men to abduct his niece for a ransom.
CCTV cameras caught one of the two stopping by the woman’s house to ask for water and while she was distracted, grabbed her daughter and ran to his accomplice waiting on their motorcycle.
Unfortunately for them, the furious mother charged at them, knocking both over before taking hold of her child and clinging onto the motorcycle.
The delay bought time for neighbours to intervene and eventually, the kidnappers were forced to flee, leaving behind evidence that would lead to their arrest.