EVANSTON — This Mother’s Day will be bittersweet for Evanston’s Mariaha Hornedo — it marks her fifth as a mother, but also the last one she’ll spend with her daughter for a while. “I love having her with me,” Hornedo told the Herald. “She helps me deal with life. But I’m not going to lie, it’s also been a struggle, balancing my Army responsibilities with being a single mom and I’m deploying soon.”

Hornedo followed her big brother, Baltazar Hornedo’s, footsteps into the Wyoming National Guard, enlisting in December 2017, half a year before graduating from Evanston High School in 2018, then shipping off to Oklahoma that summer for basic training at Fort Sill. She currently serves for a unit based in Torrington as an automated logistics specialist.

“I just do paperwork,” she said, before explaining that she’s responsible for cataloging and accounting for a variety of military equipment. “I vouch for thousands of dollars of LMTVs (light medium tactical vehicles), Humvees, weapons and mechanic parts.”

Shortly after completing advanced individual training (AIT) at Fort Lee, Virginia, Hornedo returned to Evanston and became unexpectedly pregnant with her daughter, Monse, who was born in November 2019.

“I’m pretty nervous about leaving my daughter for a year,” Hornedo said. Her unit is accompanying an artillery brigade out of Fort Riley, Kansas, in July to an undisclosed location in the Middle East. She expects to travel around the region during her tour. Hornedo, who is also a certified peer advocate in the Army, added, “I have a really good squad leader for this deployment, and that will help.”

During Hornedo’s time overseas, her daughter will remain in the primary care of Hornedo’s mother, Shaun Rouse, with continuing visitation rights extended to Monse’s biological father.

“She’s going to remember of lot of things. She knows I’m a soldier and that I have to help people. She understands that I’m gone, but doesn’t know why I’m not there,” Hornedo said, becoming visibly emotional.

Hornedo’s day job is a youth development specialist at Youth Alternative Home Association (YAHA), where she makes sure kids are on track and are safe, she said. She also credits the program for straightening her out as a wayward teenager after a two-month stay there at age 15.

“I really had to get myself together,” she said. “I ended up joining the military to become a productive member of society.”

After fulfilling her initial six-year commitment to the National Guard, Hornedo recently re-enlisted for another three years.

“I got scared of getting out,” she said. “I had a bit of an identity crisis. This has been my life since I was 17 years old.”

She has been offered a unique opportunity at a full-time, active-duty Guard position in Laramie and plans to relocate there upon her return stateside in the summer of 2025.

“Despite all of the obstacles the military throws at me as a single mom, I love my job. I have a sense of purpose, that I’m not just a mom, but that I’m also contributing to my community,” she said.