PORT ANGELES — A Port Angeles mother on Saturday will walk the line at Peninsula College with two of her daughters — who she is getting to know after years of separation.
Lili Muth, 43, and her daughters Jennah Muth, 19, and Rhiannon Muth, 18, will receive their associates of arts degrees during a ceremony Saturday on the south lawn of the Pirate Union Building.
“I am so proud,” Lili said Thursday afternoon at Peninsula College.
“It is a real privilege for me. They are going to call Jennah Muth, Rhiannon Muth and Lili Muth.”
To get to this momentous occasion, Lili said she had to overcome prolonged separation, the death of her husband and drug addiction.
Graduation with her children “is huge for me because I signed away my kids not knowing if I would ever see them again and just trusting God that he had something better planned,” she said.
“I had no idea it would be us graduating college together.”
Tragedy
At the turn of the millennium, Lili and her husband John were living in Port Angeles with their three children, Tim — now 25 — Jennah and Rhiannon.
When she was 2, Jennah was diagnosed with leukemia. She underwent a series of chemotherapy treatments over the next two years, and has been in remission ever since.
In 2001, a year after Jennah’s diagnosis, John died of complications of an enlarged heart, Lili said.
Lili was then nine months pregnant with her youngest daughter, Andrea — now 14.
Lili said she turned to drugs to escape the pain.
Given up for adoption
She decided to give up her children for adoption.
“I didn’t do very well, needless to say,” Lili said.
“It took me a couple of years to realize that I wasn’t going to be the best thing for the kids.”
As such, she said she “relinquished my parental rights to all four of my kids. I was basically told I needed to pretend I didn’t have any kids, so I moved away.”
Lili said she had grown up “in a broken home, and ended up in and out of foster homes,” seeing her biological parents only during visits to the prisons where they were incarcerated.
“That is why I made the choice I did to relinquish” the children, she said.
“I was on drugs and I didn’t know if I was going to be able to stay off drugs and give them the life they’ve had.”
Rhiannon said Thursday she is “very grateful for that because I turned out pretty [freaking] awesome.”
Reintroduction
A few years ago, Rhiannon was involved in a car wreck, Lili said, and suffered a concussion. Her adoptive parents decided then to contact Lili, she said, and suggested she become a part of her children’s lives.
“I hadn’t seen my kids in five years — no contact, nothing,” Lili said.
“I came back and the kids have been back in my life ever since.”
Lili said she has been able to teach Jennah and Rhiannon how to drive, and the three have spent a great deal of time together.
“I am available for my kids today and I wasn’t ever before,” Lili said.
Rhiannon said having her biological mother back in her life has been “cool. I have a lot more options and choices with things.”
Learning together
Jennah and her mother shared one or two classes together, they said.
Jennah “passed a science class with a little help, and I passed a writing class with her help,” Lili said.
“We get together and do tests and share internet spots.”
The experience, “has been nice,” Lili continued.
“We’ve been able to pass books back and forth. One of us will buy them, and then the next will get it. They are pretty expensive.”
Finishing strong
Jennah has had more than her fair share of tragedy, Lili said, and yet has still been able to graduate from high school and college.
“Jennah, who moved in a year ago, has made absolute leaps and bounds,” Lili said.
An introverted person, Jennah in the past has found social situations exceedingly difficult, Lili said.
But thanks to a service animal — a tabby by the name of Quincy — and the Upward Bound program at Peninsula College, Jennah has been able to succeed, she said.
She graduated in 2015 from the federally funded college preparatory program that offers assistance to low-income and first-generation, college-bound high school students.
Jennah currently is a tutor for Upward Bound, and said she hopes to go to film school to pursue her dream job — movie director.
Rhiannon said after graduation, she will “go on a road trip and find out what I want to do. I do a little bit of silversmithing and I am also getting certified as a scuba diver on Tuesday.”
Lili plans to pursue a human services degree through Grace Theological Seminary, which offers courses online.
“I want to help women like myself who didn’t have options,” Lili said.
“When I didn’t have my kids, there is not a lot of people out there helping single women that don’t have kids.
“Serenity House is amazing, but I would like to open a women’s home in Sequim for some of the women who are falling through the cracks in this town.”
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Reporter Chris McDaniel can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56650, or cmcdaniel@peninsuladailynews.com.