As millions of families sit down today to celebrate Mother’s Day, Gloria McCoy has a message for all her fellow single parents — keep pushing forward despite the struggles and stay on the straight and narrow.
The 28-year-old mother of an energetic 4-year-old said before her son was born, her life was full of vices — clubbing, partying and sex.
“She would go out and party with the rest of the kids. She was a little wild. She’s changed a lot,” said her father Clyde McCoy.
“I got pregnant with Christopher, and it opened my eyes,” Gloria McCoy said.
Now, she’s balancing working as a security officer for the Corps of Engineers, going to Mississippi College to study criminal justice and raising her son.
“The hardest thing about it is not being able to spend enough time with him like I really want to,” she said.
Though the balancing act is a struggle, Gloria McCoy said it is the right thing to do.
“I’m learning now from my mistakes, and I want him to grow up knowing what’s the right thing to do,” she said.

Often she works from 4 p.m. to midnight or from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., she said. During those times her son stays with her parents, Clyde and Linda McCoy.
“I know that’s hard on her that she’s working and going to school and raising her child. I’m proud of her. I think it’s a wonderful thing,” Clyde McCoy said. “I hope they keep things the way they’ve got and make it to the goal they’re looking for.”
She has also become very active in King Solomon Missionary Baptist Church and taken a vow of celibacy until she is married, which she encourages other young women to do.
“It’s a challenge. My advice is to wait until you are married,” Gloria McCoy said. “The best thing is to stay abstinent. Having a child and the father not being there is a hard thing for any mother,” she said.
Without the support of her family and her church, raising her son would be even more difficult, Gloria McCoy said.
“It’s a struggle to try to raise a child on your own,” she said.
Gloria never went to church before starting to attend King Solomon about seven years ago. As a teen, she took somewhat of a harsh view of religion because she saw her peers who said they went to church partying all the time and living the same life she was.
“I was living on the wrong path at the time,” she said. “I was going though a lot.”
At King Solomon, she found a church family where everyone loved each other and inspired each other to do better, she said.
“No one judges you … you help one another,” she said.
This year as a mother charting a new course for a better life for her child Gloria McCoy has a lot to celebrate.