Posts Tagged Under mother-in-law
Millie and Me
I’ve had a revelation about my mother-in-law, Millie. Let me just admit up front I’ve never liked the woman.
Our relationship has been mostly one of tolerance, a precarious pretense that we don’t bother each other. I have my list of gripes: Millie’s bigotry, her lack of curiosity, her provincialism. I turn up my nose at what I perceive as her low-brow interests: the bowling team of “girls”; the forays to the casinos to play the slots; the television that’s left on, at full volume, 24 hours a day. Our aesthetic differences can be summed up by the crocheted doily skirt on the toilet paper roll that resides in her bathroom. Enough said.
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You Never Know What Will Come Next
The Distances Between Us
My mother was not too chatty on the phone when I called her for Mother’s Day.
“Thank you for remembering. I’m going to church now, but I wouldn’t have picked up the phone if I didn’t know it was you.”
I’m her grown daughter and only child, and now that she’s moved far enough away that she can’t bring us a trunkful of food every time my folks visit, her answering the phone is a nod of specialness that I cling to.
Especially since I’m going to be a first-time mom. She’s gone to town with the shopping. Five cream-colored outfits, plus another five in blue that say “baby prince” await the little hamster that’s germinating in my belly. She’s gotten me a travel satchel, a diaper bag, and maternity clothes from their last trip to Taiwan. But Mom seems as far away as the island nation we’re from, and even as I feel the poignancy of that separation, I realize that motherhood is close at hand for me.
By Li Miao Lovett
