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International Mother's Day: The mum who encouraged her child to aim for mars

Maye Musk is a successful and famous woman in her own right
Last Updated 09 May 2021, 11:29 IST

Mothers often act as a shield for their children, encourage them when the going gets tough and push them to reach for the sky. Their love is compared to the boundlessness of seas and skies. Even Lord Voldemort was thwarted by the sacrificial spell of love that Harry Potter's dying mother, Lily, bestowed upon him.

As we celebrate International Mother's Day, it is time to see them for their spirit and courage.

One such mother pushed her child to dream beyond stars and moons and he took her encouragement to land straight into space. This is Maye Musk, the mother of one of the most talked-about celebrities in the world - billionaire Elon Musk.

Read more: Elon Musk says he is 'first person with Asperger's syndrome' to host Saturday Night Live

A successful and famous woman in her own right, Maye Musk has been a model for 50 years, appearing on magazine covers, including one of Time magazine's health editions, Woman's Day, and Vogue. She is also South Africa’s first plus-size model.

In her book, A Woman Makes a Plan: Advice for a Lifetime of Adventure, excerpts of which were published in Forbes, Maye reveals that she always motivated her children to follow their dreams.

"When they needed it, I encouraged them and helped them. When they wanted my advice, I gave it," she writes.

She describes Elon as a keen reader blessed with a sharp memory since his childhood. He was called the Encyclopedia because he had read the Encyclopedia Britannica and Collier's Encyclopedia and remembered the information. Unsurprisingly, he was also called the 'genius boy'.

"I guess now we would call him The Internet," mused the fond mother.

Also read: Elon Musk: Memelord or Meme lifter?

In 1983, a twelve-year-old Elon got his first computer. The man who would go on to revolutionise the world of technology wrote a computer program for the game Blastar at that age. His mother showed it to university students who were in her modelling school. Needless to say, those people, second or third year into their computer science degrees, 'were very impressed'.

"So I told him to submit it to a computer magazine," writes a proud Maye.

Musk did send it to PC Magazine. He was given a sum of about $500 at that time. When the program was published in the magazine, Musk was just thirteen.

Elon Musk has two siblings, who have also played their part to perfection to make it a successful family. Kimbal Musk, the middle child, owns The Kitchen Restaurant Group and Tosca Musk, the youngest of the lot, is an accomplished filmmaker who owns the OTT streaming platform Passionflix.

Did Maye know what her children would become when they grow up or even predicted? No, she confesses. But she knows the secret behind their success.

"But now I see what Elon is accomplishing with technology, what Kimbal is building in the world of food, and what Tosca is doing with movies; all of it rooted in what they loved as kids."

Maye was most recently spotted with Elon Musk on NBC's Saturday Night Live, wondering whether Elon was giving her dogecoin for Mother's Day.

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(Published 09 May 2021, 08:51 IST)

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