Joe Moreno took his mother, Vanessa Morena, as his date to the senior prom at Collegiate High School in Corpus Christi, Texas.
And he wasn’t the least bit embarrassed about it.
It was his show of gratitude for everything his mother had done for him, including missing her own senior prom.
“My mom had me at 17, so she didn’t get to experience prom,” Joe told Fox News. “I just really wanted to take her.”
Vanessa was 17-year-old when she had to drop out of school to take care of her son.
That meant that she had to miss her senior prom.
Joe made a promise to his mother when he was just a little boy that he would take her to his prom. When prom season finally came around, Vanessa didn’t think he would keep his promise.
“I’m trying to persuade him, ‘Hey, take somebody else. Take somebody. This is your prom. Like, we can have our memories somewhere else.’ And he kept on. ‘No, I’m taking you.'” Vanessa told 3 News.
But Joe’s friends weren’t all that surprised to see Joe’s date at the prom.
They all know how much he loves his mom.
“I really love talking about my family. It’s something that I’m really passionate about. I’m really passionate about who I am. I love who I am. So when I bring my mom, everyone knows I love my mom. I tell them about it, and they are all really supportive and really loving of the idea,” Joe said.
Joe helped his mom pick out a beautiful black and gold gown and even bought her a corsage. The mother and son walked into the party arm-in-arm.
They spent the night dancing and taking lots of pictures.
“Gorgeous. They looked really nice. They did. I loved her hair. It’s all pretty and curvy,” Joe’s friend Ladandria Taylor said.
“She was pretty nice. Her dress was all perfect. She looked perfect. She really wanted to be there,” Felicity Shea, another friend of Joe’s said.
Joe, who planned on becoming an oncologist after his grandfather passed away from lung cancer, ended up tweeting some prom pictures and a story about why he took his mom as his date.
Those posts ended up going viral.
“Twenty likes. Then 100. Then 200. It just blew up. It was crazy. To 1,000! Then when I woke up the next day, 12,000! That whole day just went crazy,” Joe said.
My mom had me at the age of 17 she dropped out of high school to focus on giving me her all. Last night I gave her the prom night she never had. pic.twitter.com/obsGzYxX8K
— Joe Angel⁶𓅓 (@joeamoreno8) April 14, 2018
Vanessa was overwhelmed with messages from mothers who related to her story and applauded her for raising such a gentleman.
“Sometimes people don’t know the sacrifices us mothers make. We just hope that it does get seen, and I am so glad my son did see my sacrifice and wanted to give back. It meant the world to me,” she said.
Joe said that taking his mother to the prom was the very least he could do for her after everything she sacrificed for him.
“This is something that will last in her memory forever,” said Joe. “It really means so much [to me] to give that opportunity to her.”
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