A young woman’s heartfelt Facebook post about being abandoned by her mother at just 8 months old has gone viral on social media.

The daughter, now 21, shared how her mother left her and her father because she believed marriage was an obstacle to her dreams. Her father and his elder sister raised her. She grew up calling her aunt “mother,” and was deeply hurt when neighbors said, “She is not your mother.”

At 10, her father revealed why her mother left. Her mother had reportedly said upon leaving, “Before marriage I had no children, so this is only your child, not mine.”

At 21, she set out to find her biological mother. After a long search through social media, she found her and sent a message. Her mother agreed to meet. But the reunion was devastating. Her mother arrived with her two other children and treated her like a stranger, exchanging only polite pleasantries before leaving.

“I thought, shouldn’t I also receive the love and care she shows those children? That broke my heart,” she wrote.

But the experience made her realize the depth of her father’s love. Her father never remarried, fearing how a stepmother might affect her life. On her wedding day, he walked her to the mandap and said, “Everyone said a girl needs a mother’s love and that I couldn’t do it alone. But I said I would prove I can be both a mother and a father.”

Her father could have had his own life, but he sacrificed everything for her.

“Today whatever I am, I owe it only to my father. My father will always be my hero. The mother who abandoned me is just a zero,” she concluded.