My hat is off to any woman that can raise SUCCESSFUL children on her own. My mom was a widow, my dad was killed in a car accident when I was five and my sister was seven. That was back in the early 1950's when not many job opportunities were available to woman. She raised two successful children, both college graduates that have had successful marriages and successful grand children. So hats off to your wife's grandmother.
She was married and had her first child at 16. Husband ran off with his mistress after the 5th one (ironically he ended up in the same part of Veracruz as the woman in the article). After he ran out, she forged documents (fake diplomas) to work as a law librarian in a Mexico City law firm. Later in life she forged a series of birth certificates to keep working past Mexico's mandatory retirement age at the same firm. Apparently most of the lawyers knew but preferred to keep her around. Of her 5 daughters, one is one of the top art preservation and restoration experts in Canada, one is an English teacher, one is a restaurateur with multiple restaurants and two married well. All with successful marriages and children.
She drank beer in the most bizarre manner: she would pour a little into a glass and swirl it into foam and drink the foam. Repeat. She loved beer, but the slow methodical method kept her from drinking too much. Except at my/my wife's rehearsal dinner where she indulged in margaritas made by a gringo who shouldn't have been put in charge of making margaritas (we spent a LOT on tequila that night). She blamed "las bombas atomicas" for her condition the next morning. I feel you tita. They were bombas atomicas.