He Asked His Mom To Prom, But The Reason This Meant So Much To Her Brought Me To Tears

May 7, 2015

This is how you know you're doing parenting right.

Danotiss Smith and Belinda Hunt-Smith

Last month, Belinda Hunt-Smith asked her 18-year-old son Danotiss about who he was taking to prom. His response left her stunned.

He didn't want to take anyone but her.

"He explained it to me like, 'You're always there, you do everything for me. I want you to go," Hunt-Smith, who lives in Pontiac, told The Huffington Post. "For him to want to share that moment with me... I'm at a loss for words."

The notion was particularly special for Belinda because she never went to her prom. In fact, she had to turn down multiple date requests due to her family's financial situation.

"It tore me up inside, because I really wanted to go. I think I cried every night up until prom," Hunt-Smith said. She told classmates who asked why she wasn't there that she hadn't wanted to attend.

"I didn't want people to know that I was in a bad situation," she explained. "I [told myself] 'If I ever have kids I'll make sure they can go.'"

When Belinda was 11 years old, passed away from cancer. Her dad decided he couldn't take care of her and her siblings, and she moved in with her grandmother and helped raise her two younger brothers.

"It didn't change my way of thinking, because I wanted to make my momma proud of me," Hunt-Smith said. "She told me before she died, 'You are my strongest kid.' And I never understood it until now, but everything I went through, I came out of."

Belinda could not be more proud of her son. She fondly remembers when he was a 4-year-old water boy for her older son's third grade baseball team and ended up filling in as third baseman. 

"Do you know, my baby got on that base, and not one ball got past him?" she gushed.

Belinda said, "This is the best Mother's Day gift I ever could have wanted,"

Credit: Huffington Post.