That is the question
I noticed her from a distance. She headed toward us as we walked through the airport. If my mother noticed her, too, she said nothing.
The woman’s clothes were elegant, crisp and unwrinkled. Tasteful jewelry, expensive shoes, posture that was confident and unbent. Her hair and makeup were exactly right; her lipstick didn’t overstate its place on her face. I took in all of it as our strides closed the space between us, and my mind drew two columns. My mother at the top of one, this stranger at the top of the other. In that moment, it was impossible for me not to compare the two women.
When we passed her, she gave me a half-smile, neither kind nor unkind, only pleasant. And a thought skittered through my mind, unbidden, a dry leaf cartwheeling across the top of a thousand more, no bigger or smaller or more colorful than the others.
Why can’t she be my mother?
I thought I meant, “Why can’t my mother look like that?” But I probably didn’t. Not in that moment, not even now.
My mother had just come off a plane from England–for her, the trip of a lifetime.
She had saved for it and planned it for months, down to the smallest detail. The trip would feed her vault of information on our family’s geneaology and, for two weeks or so, she would see the sights. At the time, she was close to 60 years old, and it would be her first trip abroad.
We had visited each other only a few times in my adult life, after not seeing each other for 14 years. Our visits were spaced apart by years, by missteps and misunderstandings. By spaces of time when nothing was misunderstood at all, just unacceptable.
We were smoothing the wood of our relationship layer by layer, as with a plane, shaves of time falling away to reveal something new–with any luck, maybe even something useful. Even though we had been working at it for over ten years, it was too soon to tell whether what we uncovered would become beautiful furniture or a rough bench. Or nothing.
She flew into O’Hare so that she could spend a few days with us in Indiana before returning to her home in Kansas. After a long wait outside customs, I spotted her as she came through the doors, but it took me several moments to get her attention. When she got close, I opened my arms and leaned toward her to give her a hug.
She walked past me and through the doors to outside.
I stood there for a moment feeling like an asshole as my arms dropped back to my sides, their unreturned gesture all the more glaring in the sea of hugs and backslaps, among the chorus of “You made it!” and “It’s so good to see you!” and “How was the flight?” The waves of greetings swelled and faded and built again as another group of travelers burst through the doors.
I did the only thing I could do, the thing I had spent too much of my life doing.
I looked for my mother.
When I found her, she was smoking a cigarette outside.
“Where did you go?” I asked, stupidly.
“I just had to get outside. After being on the plane for that long, I just had to get outside.”
You had to smoke. Fair enough. Maybe you were going a little crazy, cooped up like that, I wanted to say. But how long does it take to stop and hug your daughter after you haven’t seen her for two years?
Splinters. This work between us was full of splinters.
She still made no attempt to hug me. I’m not a hugger by nature and, the fact was, my effort to embrace her was born of expectation and artificial emotion. My way of brushing a glossy stain over something unfinished between us, to give it an easy shine. So what right did I have to resent her for rejecting it? In that moment, an uglier reaction ran through me, pulled along on a string by my hurt feelings. At the last minute, she had asked us for part of the money she needed for the trip and we gave it to her. A nice thank you this is, I thought, even as I was ashamed of myself for thinking it.
I tried again. She did hug me back then, awkwardly, with one arm, her other arm holding her cigarette off to the side. Half of an embrace, a half-hearted embrace. Maybe half. Maybe that much.
We made our way to baggage claim (weren’t we carrying enough?) and toward the elegant woman.
I don’t hope or try to change people, not anymore, at least. That’s like betting on a bad horse. It never pays out. I believe that for the most part we can’t do much except to let people be who they are, and either take them for what they are or walk away. When I saw the other woman, my wish wasn’t that my own mother would take more care in her appearance. (And I knew that the other woman might possess none of the qualities I was assigning to her.) What I wanted was for my mother to be able to move through the world with greater ease, to use better manners, to treat people with kindness. I wanted her to treat me with kindness.
The elegant woman smiled, and my thought was, “Why can’t she be my mother?”
But I was asking the wrong question (a childish question, at that), and about the wrong person. The bigger question wouldn’t fully form until a year or two later, and I may never stop asking it, though nothing much comes of it anymore. It falls like a branch into a current of life that flows faster than the past can catch up to it. Maybe one day I will lose sight of it altogether and wonder why I ever bothered asking. I wish I knew more of the reasons why it cannot be, though I have a lock on a few of them. There’s little between us now but silence. The two of us–the woman who gave birth to me, and me–have passed each other, headed in different directions. The question lies between us, rough and shapeless:
Why can’t she be (why couldn’t she be) my mother?
And I can’t help but wonder if she asks a version of that question about me, if she ever wonders why I can’t be her daughter.
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This makes my heart ache…for you and for my husband and his sisters. Some women just aren’t cut out to be mothers…I don’t know, maybe something is just broken inside of them.
I hope that someday you and your mother can make peace with each other.
Susans last blog post..Saving KT
Another powerful post. You have a remarkable memoir bottled up inside. When you write these, is it cathartic for you, or does it hurt more than it helps?
Either way, thank you for sharing.
Please please, if you can, stop wondering if she has that version of the question in her mind — don’t do that to yourself. You have done everything to be a “good”, daughter or even just a daughter and she hasn’t allowed it.
I love you Jenn. (and you know I’m not a huggy kind of person either)
This brings tears to my eyes. It’s not you…..she just doesn’t love herself enough, to be capable of loving anyone else the way they need or deserve it.
Sad for you that you have every idea of what’s missing. Sadder still for her that she does not.
Beautifully expressed as always.
Hilarys last blog post..One Year After
I can relate so well.
Except, I never changed the question until today.. reading your post.
My therapist has even brought up the point that my mother is not my mother - and it didn’t occur to me.
So, thank you.. I think that is one step closer to some sort of healing, being able to deal..
My biggest fear lately is that no matter how much time I spend with my mom, how hard I try to be close to her.. one day she will be gone and I will stll ache for more and not get it. Because then it will be too late.
Kates last blog post..Meme
Wow - you are an amazing writer, and incredibly insightful. Even with the questions you ask, it appears you know the answers - from some other place within yourself. Thank you for sharing on such a personal level. You are an inspiration.
Sadly beautiful. I love the line about the splinters.
McSwains last blog post..
Sniff.
Jennifer you are such a beautiful poetic writer. You have a way of expressing thoughts like no one else I have ever read. It brought tears to my eyes to think or even imagine how this makes a person feel. To love and want to give love and not have even a tiny portion of it returned. Don’t let the splinter get under your skin and fester inside.
Treasias last blog post..New Beginnings
It helped me to deal with my mom (who was very loving, but broken in other ways) to remember that she was very much a product of her upbringing.
I focus a lot on the fact that I’ve broken all kinds of cycles with this family I’ve built.
You do write about your family issues with such poignancy.
We none of us can choose who we are related to. Some of us luck out, some of us make do, and some of us have no choice but to walk away and try to start over.
It bowls me over when you write about your relationship with your mother. It’s incredible writing and I marvel at how effortless you make it look, but the meat of what you are writing makes me so sad. So much of our time as families is wasted on petty anger and misdirected hate. I have a hard time understanding the whys of it, as do you. I may know academically that abusive people were often the victims of abuse, but their angry actions still generate a cry of “why?” in me. I’m proud of you for breaking the circle and not dumping that baggage on your kids. At the least, the BS ends with you.
Sending you a big hug today - partly for you, partly for me!
we_be_toyss last blog post..Painting With Words
See, this is the thing about blogs. I hopped over from Meg’s funny blogroll post. I land here and immediately get sucked into your post. The emotions, the beautiful word choice. I figured if Meg liked your blog, so would I.
Some women just aren’t meant to be mothers. At least you’ve broken the cycle.
kaceys last blog post..Increase Blog Traffic
I’m so sorry.
It is absolutely HER loss–not yours!
Lisas last blog post..Coming Out
Wow, Jennifer. I think that poignant is the word I’m looking for.
And, to paraphrase Obama, could it be that you are the mother you have been waiting for ? Engaged, elegant, nurturing. It seems to me that you can’t do any more than that.
Your mother and mine come from the same cloth. I’m quite a bit older than you and I’m not sure we ever reconcile all of this entirely. I like your approach. We can’t change others. We all have our own paths in this world and some come better equipped than others.
In the end, all you can do is wish someone like that well… and not let them close enough to do any harm.
(Followed you here from Emily’s site. I hope you’ll let us know how the Tweeze works out.
Wow, sweetie. This is some powerful writing. My mother and I had a difficult relationship and this really hit the nail on the head for me. She’s been gone five years now and I’m still trying to figure things out. Those who say it’s your mother’s loss are SO right. To be fair, my mother was a great mom when we were little, but I have learned from her what kind of mother I do not want to be to my adult kids. It hurts, but learn from it…
I feel like you are wandering through some really tough yet beautiful territory.
Those splinters are hard to shake. I agree with flutter; tough and beautiful.
Motherly musings what can he say. The days are not unlike the pedals of metal shards, the shrapnel of the heart, A flashlight deeming the world of consequence. Who knows not the power of words. By Cactus!
Its too much to see the horse take to gallop unless the proverbial spawn have turned upon the Beatles that engorge on the cantaloupes of our discontent. The popular troll has no pain yet yours, in rounded pastry we burn for your relief, amoungst the aged candelabric Scholar.
Trollpop Bagelstiens last blog post..Please Me Twice…
This appears to be a never ending theme with our generation. The emotionally crippled parent, or the infantile parent that cannot express emotion to their children and for some reason feel bitter about the way their lives turned out. It hasn’t been the case with me, but I have known dozens of my friends that have the same experiences that you have.
Keep in mind, that they serve as a lesson on how NOT to behave toward your children when you are older. These older parents have been damaged and you can’t fix them at this point.. So use them as a guide on what to do and not to do in your future.
She’s broken. And you’ve picked up the pieces. I’m continually in awe of your strength and how differently you are loving and raising your children without any role model to help you along the way. You are amazing!
And the writing…well, it always draws me in.
Okay, when your book gets published I’ll have to read it with a highlighter because you have so many lovely turns of phrase.
That said, I have often thought the same thing–never about strangers, but about women my mother’s age who I know. Why can’t they be my mom? *sigh* I only pray my sons never feel that way about me.
melissas last blog post..I scream, you scream, we all scream…
this was incredibly beautiful.
heartbreaking, too. and close to home for me.
but i’ll choose to focus on the beautiful. like this line:
a dry leaf cartwheeling across the top of a thousand more, no bigger or smaller or more colorful than the others.
stunning.
Wow, this was amazing. Deep, thoughtful, insightful, funny and heart wrenching.
Rheas last blog post..Ask…and I just might answer
So this is exactly how I have always felt about my grandmother. I saw my friends interacting with their grandmothers and always wondered, “Why can’t my grandmother be like that.” I do know, however, that she always wanted something/someone else in a granddauther as well.
I say this because it was my grandmother. I cannot imagine how much deeper the feeling is, how much harder it is, how much more it hurts, when it is a mother.
Well-written. You have you own answers. The answers do not always make sense, but you know what they are.
Louises last blog post..Wisdom from Chic and Chicklet
This is a lovely post. I remember once watching my mother pet her beloved cat–by patting her on the head–and I realized that she never had it to give. It didn’t make all those years of craving her affection go away, but it did help me make some sense of it all.
Prof. Js last blog post..Wouldn’t you like to be a Derfwad, too?
I can’t even imagine how much this hurts you (although your beautiful writing does paint a vivid picture). I hope you can put this pain to rest somehow for your own peace of mind…and I hope that she can too. Don’t be fooled, I am pretty sure she is puzzled and guilt ridden by her own actions. Who knows how deep this runs with her. Anger is so soul consuming…try pity, it’s not as bad.
Stacies last blog post..Tony at Work
Oh! and this might make your day…Did you know that today is The Day of the American Cowboy?
Stacies last blog post..Tony at Work
That’s big stuff to be handling, Jennifer. I’m really sorry that your mother is not the mother you deserve, but you’re right. We can’t change others, and those mother-daughter relationships are so damned hard, so easy to screw up.
But you know what? You’re a strong, capable woman who has immense talent. Your mother can’t take that away from you.
Peace - D
RiverPoets last blog post..Quick, Recommend a Voice Recognition Software!
Sometimes it seems that what could have been is more painful than what actually was-do you know what I mean?
Mrs. G.s last blog post..The Seventies
Once again, this was writing at its best.
I tried emailing you a couple of times, but they bounce back saying your mailbox is full.
JCKs last blog post..First one letter, then the next ..and the next
A beautifully written, touching post. You’re right. People can’t always be what you want them to be.
Ah yes, the gaping hole that forever begs the question…what if I had…who would I be if…? The mother we never really had, but wonder who we’d be if she’d really been there. Yes.
That closing line is extremely provocative. I DO wonder what she asks herself about your absence in her life. How does she just sit with that (know the history)? How does she frame it, justify it? I guess you may never know. And I hope you are peaceful knowing that that is her hook to bear, and not yours. My heart goes out to you, as always.
Anns last blog post..Carpet Art, A Dog Psychic, & A Throwdown
How very insightful. And beautifully written, as always.
Rees last blog post..Visit with the Goldens
This is so beautiful and so sad. My heart hurts for you. You are wise to recognize that you can’t change people (so many people I know have wasted years trying). I hope someday you can make peace with you mom even if only in your own head.
As always, a really fantastic post.
Kimberlys last blog post..Wordless Wednesday: But it’s a classic, right?
Jennifer I wanted to let you know I passed a blog award on to you. Stop by sometime and pick it up and spread the love.
Treasias last blog post..Always Treasure gifts received
How do you keep writing like this? My heart is right there with you, even as I notice the lovely structure of your words. Again.
anymommys last blog post..The Space Between
In her heart of hearts, she can’t hide from the true answer to that question Jennifer. That is your mother’s bane to carry, this knowledge. For you, it is exactly the opposite. In the understanding you have found a way to liberate yourself.
Powerful post. It tells me much about how power-full you are.
Jennifer, I am so sorry. I do understand. I don’t want to wipe away your feelings with quotes. That can’t be done. They are your feelings. I just want you to know that I relate. How many times over the years I have asked the same of my father. I never thought that things would ever get better. I always figured one day I would stand at his funeral and people would even whisper “who is that lady?”.
I can tell you that it is her loss and you never need to define yourself by what you mother does and doesn’t do……but it still hurts, it still rips, as you vacilate between craving and being numb to protect yourself.
I want you to know that YOU ARE special.
Jules~s last blog post..God’s Strength….
Jennifer, as usual…beautiful, powerful, strong and amazing just like you! Oh…and I AM a hugger and I am sending you one…
I get your pain…I really, really do.
Hugs!
Meg
Megs last blog post..El Jefe~There Were Signs Everywhere
My relationship with my father is somewhat similar. While we haven’t necessarily been separated by time and distance as much, we remain emotionally distant. We talk about the mundane things. There’s that, I guess. But it’s so hard to have the meaningful type of conversation I know we both want. Too much has gone on in our lives for us to really connect.
We’re going down there to visit at the end of the week. I hope to find some common ground. Dig deep and not shy away when we have the inevitable disagreements over this or that. They won’t be arguments. But I fear we’ll never really see eye to eye. That he won’t really want to know my side of things. But I’ll give it a shot . . .
Amazing post, Jennifer. I’m sharing this on the sidebar of The Cheek.
Are you still in Indiana? Shoot me an email and tell me more . . .
tysdaddys last blog post..Being Kirk
Beautifully written, and haunting. The idea of what could have been drives us to answer ourselves through our children and our own lives.
Tricias last blog post..A Hypocrite’s View of Leaving Home
Interesting. Cannot remember when I last hugged my mother, or she, me. Have only talked to her, barely, a couple of times during the past… well, years.
Guess that old saying about picking friends and relatives comes to mind.
sauerkrauts last blog post..3 things that annoy me
Reading this post makes me think about how I feel when I see my mother, which is a couple times a year. Thank you for sharing, once again.
Denise @ EatPlayLoves last blog post..As The Smoke Clears…
This hurts. It never stops hurting. But I think working on trying to realize that we just aren’t going to get what we want helps. So I try to find other things to focus on. Sometimes it works better than others. I hope you reach a place where the expectations and efforts that almost seem to guarantee disappointment cease.
Peace!
My heart just aches for you. I have been trying to help a girlfriend of mine through similar feelings about her mother. It is so difficult. Being hurt over and over again by someone who is supposed to love you unconditionally. But still you hope. And you are right to hope, but it is just so hard.
Wonderful post. I came here via David.
I don’t know what to say…our mothers can be so (or could be so) ornery and contrite, cultured yet boorish…they’re never the same to other people as they are to us, for better or worse…sometimes we have to be the mother to our children that we wish our mothers had been to us. David sent me…
Sandi
Sandi McBrides last blog post..On Leaving England Episode 3 (or "Why is our Mattress wrapped around the piano?"
I just discovered this and haven’t read all the chapters yet, but I’m truly not the monster many of you think I am.
Jennifer’s memory is slightly flawed about our meeting in the airport. I’d only walked a few feet past her when I heard her call out “Mother!”. She did *not* have to chase me outside. But thanks to my own mother’s family not being the kissy-huggy sort (altho my father’s side was, we didn’t see much of them), it’s not my custom to hug *anybody* in an airport no matter how long it’s been since I’ve seen them. I didn’t have to stop on the way back, btw. If I’d known not immediately hugging Jen in the O’Hare terminal would be published here, I might’ve changed planes in Chicago and gone straight on to Kansas instead. Now *that* would’ve been something to get your shorts in a knot over, Jen.
Hopefully you will mention the morning when Girl, only a week old, wouldn’t stop crying no matter what you did. It was already 10 o’clock, you hadn’t had a shower, let alone dressed. I’d been outside on the patio with Boy, heard Girl’s wailing, went inside to find you standing in the kitchen holding her and looking frantic. I said “Go take your shower”, took Girl out of her arms, at which point Girl immediately stopped crying. While you showered and collected yourself, Girl and her grandma had a bonding session in the big chair in the living room.
Again, I haven’t read all of the chapters here, but perhaps you will mention, after the many times I’ve been to your homes (plural), why you have never ever visited mine despite many requests to do so.
It is not a child’s place to reach out to her mother. It is the other way around.
Emily Rs last blog post..And, now, back to our regularly scheduled posts
Blah blah blah blah blame everybody else, make your daughter feel like shit, like you always have, don’t take any personal responsibility for the fact that you are a hack as a parent.
You held Girl so Jenn could take a shower? OH MY GOD. Why was the media not alerted?! This is truly an amazing and heartening display of nurturing that must immediately be rewarded. I know! I’ll make certain that a bust in your likeness is placed in the White House.
You have some nerve lady, and may I applaud your absolute class? Oh, nope, I can’t since none is apparent nor forthcoming.
Let your daughter have her space. You are not identified by name, none of us know who you are, but with every vitriolic word you spew, we are getting to know better WHAT you are.
What Emily and Flutter said.
I have met Jennifer’s mother once. She was not someone who showed any signs or warmth or nurturing, but I gave her EVERY BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT FOR JENNIFER’S SAKE.
Jennifer had a shitty life growing up. She got stuck in a family that is among the worst I have ever heard, but she’s not like that, and she’s not BLAMING them for what happened to her. Instead she is making her own life a better place.
What I see from “Jennifer’s Mother” is that she is exactly like the family in which Jennifer was raised. No more benefit of the doubt from this quarter. People like her are the reason women are referred to as f**k**g bitches.
Did I hear one word of remorse? NO!!!!!! Did I hear one bit of potential “wished things would have gone better?” HELL NO! I heard a person who has apparently been a selfish bitch her whole life obviously not have learned a thing from her years on the planet about how to love and be loved.
Louises last blog post..Late Summer Sky–SkyWatch
Jennifer’s “mother”,
What Emily, Flutter and Louise said.
AND
I am so damn proud of Jennifer. She has broke the cycle. BROKE THE CYCLE. She is a loving, caring, nurturing mother to her children.
You have a lot of nerve getting on here and acting like you are two years old. She is your CHILD. Do you know what that means? It means you don’t attack them. Some of us parents like to call it UNCONDITIONAL LOVE. It’s probably to late for you to grasp onto that concept but know this — there are some of us out here who are going to shower Jennifer with that unconditional love and take care of her as best we can and that’s going to include addressing each and every comment you decide to leave on her blog.
We’ve got her back.
Madges last blog post..Morning Forecast
Um…I’m just reading the question posed toward the end of your post and wondering if “your mother” let that sink in a bit. If she had, then I’m thinking that making this commentary would not have been the first thing that would have been topping her agenda.
I’m glad, for you sake Jennifer, that despite it all, you allow yourself to feel things and express them. I’m glad that in the future, you will never have to reflect upon your own parenting and blame your own transgressions on the fact that “your mother” was the hugging type.
I’m sorry that you’ve had to endure this visit. I feel for you there, as you know.
oops I meant she *wasn’t* the hugging type.
Louise, if I ever met you, it was at Jennifer’s at Ducky’s pre-wedding get together to meet her intended’s parents. To Jen’s credit, despite being 2 months pregnant with the Girl and still suffering from *severe* morning sickness, she had spent Christmas week running all over town in the snow and cold buying silk flowers and such for the wedding (including several dozen yards of muslin to tie around folding chairs at the church) and this little get together. I know this because I was right there with her, trooping in and out of every store and wondering why Ducky couldn’t take a day off from work to do some of the running around herself. It was *her* wedding after all.
At any rate, *if* your were at that get together, then you witnessed Jen’s dad holding court in the corner, whining and lamenting how victimized *he* had been by Sue. You would also have heard how members of your family *knew* what Sue was doing to Jen and Ducky and chose to *do nothing* to stop it. Any one of you could’ve told a teacher or some authority (or better yet Jen and Ducky’s paternal grandfather who would’ve come in with the cavalry and run Sue out of town on a rail…IFhe let her live). But n ot one of you that evening asked Jen’s dad the obvious questions: “Why didn’t YOU stop it? Why didn’t YOU kick Sue out or take those little girls someplace where she could no longer abuse and torture them?”. ????
If your impression the one time you ever saw me was I was “not someone who showed any signs or warmth or nurturing”, it was because I’d promised Jen to be nice to her dad…even tho all I wanted to do was rip his guts out (slowly) with a fish fork for letting the girls be sooo horribly abused….and therefore was biting my tongue to keep from asking The Question myself.
Every one here seems to overlook or ignore the fact that *I* didn’t put the girls into this dysfunctional family - their adult father did. If I could go back in time, you bet I would’ve taken them with me when I left him, and they would’ve been surrounded by *my* dysfunctional family. In a 24-year-old’s “wisdom”, I ***truly*** thought they would be better off with their dad and HIS side of the family, all of whom did NOT allow children to be abused. There was no such thing as “joint” custody in Missouri back then. Had to be one parent or the other, but the custody agreement states I was to have unlimited visitation. In reality, “unlimited” meant “at the discretion of the custodial parent”, but again there was nothing I knew about him at the time to indicate he would EVER keep the girls from me. And he didn’t unil he met Sue.
Very few of us get the mother we think we deserve. Or the one who fits the image of our grown-up lifestyle. As for the “elegant woman” you admired in the airport, come on. You were a nanny for how many years in Connecticut. You of all people know what kind of mothers “elegant” women are. Isn’t that why you sent me a copy of the “Nanny Diaries”, so I too would know how horrible and uncaring mothers-with-nannies *really* are?
I saw the disappointment in your eyes when we finally met again when you were in college. You were expecting a polished suburban matron like your friend L, and instead the woman who opened the door at the motel was just a jeans-clad middle-aged woman who obviously had NOT been spending her days playing bridge at the country club (altho I did play bridge regularly at one time), or lunching in cafes in Manhattan. Had you grown up with me in Podunk, Kansas, perhaps you would’ve been less focused on a person’s looks as a measure of “acceptibility”.
Jennifer’s Mother,
The first thing I must say here is that this is about YOU, not about anyone else. I, and many other people are well aware of the miserable life created by Sue and allowed by Jennifer and Ducky’s father and covered up by Sue’s parents. I’ll address them in a minute, but the main point is that YOU have nothing to do with that other than leaving your children and going to another state. Twenty-four is old enough to make rational decisions. (You can drive when you’re 16, you can vote when you’re 18, you can drink when you’re 21.) Some people are not “together” by the time they’re 24, but those people have no one to blame but themselves. I dare say Jennifer and Ducky had a hell of a lot worse life by the time they were 24 than you did, and their decisions at that time did not alter the lives of others the way yours did.
You can blame their father and Sue and MY family all you want. But the fact is that you left. You moved to another state taking away your right to unlimited visitation, and you still, obviously to this very day, take no responsibility for your own actions and want to blame others–including your own daughters.
Although I’ve thought this before, I’ve never said it out loud, but now is the time. Jennifer and Ducky had two mothers in their lives that were equally bad. When I think of you, and I think of Sue, I only see selfishness. Selfishness leads to cruel behavior whether it manifests itself physically or mentally. I have never heard that you physically abused your children, so I do not accuse you of that. But I will accuse you with a finger in your face of mental abuse. And it still continues.
Do you know how I know this? Yes, I’m from that family that spawned Sue. My mother was Sue’s sister. My mother is dead because she was the nice one that came out of there. She put up with a lifetime of abuse from a mother (Sue’s mother) that is so similar to yours in statements and actions that I can hardly believe it. She died because she had chronic, clinical depression. She had one way to cope with her family (another “mother-type” figure to her), and that was taken away. Her jealous mother did all in her power to sever the relationship between my mother and her “true mother.” She eventually succeeded, and my mother fell apart Mind you she had a loving family of her own around her, but her mother figure was out of her life, and her own mother was acting like you have and are acting toward your children, and she could not cope. I will not go into details, but she was undergoing shock therapy and was a mess, and took too much of a medication. The overdose did not kill her, but it killed her brain. It took her nine years to die, and it was a horrible, undignified death. I lived my whole life under the shadow of Sue’s mother, my grandmother. She tried to destroy me as well as my father until her dying breath, but we apparently have better genes than my poor mother had. So I KNOW what you are doing because it is exactly the same as the thing my grandmother did. The same words, the same phrases, the same juvenile behavior. You are the same as THEM. The people you deride are who you are.
Now to some of the specifics of your comment. You first talk about wondering if Ducky could take off because you and Jennifer were working so hard. Well I wasn’t there for that, but my guess is that Jennifer was working hard and you were following around needing attention. Just a guess, so I won’t accuse that, but my guess is that I’m not far off. As for Ducky, it was her wedding. When I got married, I wanted to do things for the wedding to save expenses. I wanted to make this or do that. MY MOTHER (God blessed me with a good one) wouldn’t let me. She did not want to add stress to the life of a bride, so she limited what I did. At the time I just accepted it. Later I was grateful. For you to even mention this about Ducky is more evidence of your behavior that is like Sue and family.
No, I did not witness anything at the pre-wedding gathering about Jennifer and Ducky’s father lamenting about Sue or telling how people knew things and did not tell. First, to be honest, I have never had a lot of respect for him, either, because he was the one closest to the situation who allowed it to happen. I usually try to stay in the other corner of the room. But because I said that does not mean I hold him in the same esteem I hold you and Sue and Sue’s mother. I do not. Yes, I think he erred greatly. Yes, I think he was thinking only of himself. Yes, there is a lot of responsibility on his shoulders for what happened to your daughters. But the fact is that he does not treat them the same way you do. Not even close. Was he the best father on the planet? By no means. But does he blame them for what happened to them in their childhood? No. He has his issues, but he is not you.
Let’s address “any one of you (could have reported Sue).” First, there was YOU who was absent, but to my family… No, not any one of us could have told a teacher or the authorities. My nuclear family did not know about the physical abuse. I remember my parents saying, “I wish mental abuse was easier to prove. But we can’t do anything about this.” Sue was good at hiding the evidence. She never did anything physical that could be seen with regular clothes, and it was not until Jennifer was in high school that we found out about it. (I’m going to add here that it was ME, a teenager myself, who confronted Sue and her mother about how stupid they were which is when the rest of the information started pouring out.)
Before this I will say that teachers and authorities DID know things from different sources, and nothing was ever followed through. I am aware that at least twice state (or county?) officials were made aware, but nothing came of it.
And I will also say that if you had not left, they never would have been in the situation in the first place. YOU ARE THE ONE THAT WENT OUT OF STATE WHICH ENDED YOUR UNLIMITED VISITATION RIGHTS AND MADE IT POSSIBLE FOR THE FALSE PRETENSES OF THE ADOPTION TO TAKE PLACE. I fully agree that the adoption was improper. I will never defend Sue… EVER. But I will not, either, relinquish you for your responsibility in this. No, you could not have known how bad it would be. (Though I’m truthfully not sure it was much worse than had the girls been with you.) But you could have made more effort to be with your children. Bottom line is that you did not.
So being nice to Jennifer’s father makes it impossible for you to act like you care about your children at a social gathering? I don’t understand that paragraph at all. What I saw at that pre-wedding meal was that you needed attention. You were not an attending mother (which is somewhat excusable because you had not been in the lives of your children since they were very small), but someone who wanted the limelight.
And before you decide to “rip his guts out (slowly) with a fish fork,” it might be wise to look in the mirror first. Even though I do not have any amount of compassion or concern for you, in kindness I will say here that too many people in life spend their time blaming others for their own problems and the problems of people they love. It is fruitless. It makes one unhappy. Take some responsibility for your own life and decisions, and you will be a happier person. Maybe you ARE happy, but the tone of these comments on your daughter’s blog would suggest otherwise. Jennifer and Ducky are not dwelling on the horrible things that happened in their past. They don’t dwell on YOU. They moved on and make their live something worthwhile. (As did I because I grew up on the perimeter of that place, and it affected me as well.)
As for YOU not putting the girls in that dyfunctional environment, yes you did. A lot of people did including their father. But YOU DID TOO! Admit it, say you’re sorry, and go on. And truth be told, I don’t think it matters. As I said, your children don’t dwell on this. They don’t stew about it. They know what their life was like, they accept it, and they make a different life. I DO know at least one of them was willing to forgive and go forward with a relationship with you, but you made that difficult. Having had a grandmother that I’m not sure I would be able to distinguish from you in the dark, I can say that the most healthy thing to do with people like that in your life is distance yourself from them. No matter what happened in childhood, you’re not 24 now. If I were your children, I would want nothing to do with you. Life is too short to spend with people that are never happy with you or the world or are so much maintenance that they drag you down. Maybe we would be willing to go through some of the garbage if there was a foundation of relationship from childhood. But there is not. They owe you nothing, but your words indicate that they do. You seem to think they owe you allegiance as a mother. That’s crap. THEY. OWE. YOU. NOTHING. Jennifer was more than generous to not remove your selfish comments the second she saw them come to her blog.
As for your truly thinking your daughters would be better off with their dad, I’m sure you tell yourself that all the time. Like Sue and her mother, you tell yourself whatever it is you need to believe to get through the day. And even if you truly believed it (which I doubt, I believe you just couldn’t handle the responsibility), there were years and years where YOU could have been fighting.
If your daughters would have been better off with their dad when they were young, why are they better off with you writing selfish things on their blogs now? Here’s what I said to my grandmother in relationshship to my mother so many times, but it is aimed at you now. “If you really loved your daughter, you would leave her alone and let her live her life.”
And to your last comment:
“Very few of us get the mother we think we deserve.” I would disagree with this. I believe most people get wonderful mothers. Often we are too wrapped up in ourselves to realize it, but when I have looked around me all of my life, I see mostly happy mothers and daughters.
As for L, I know her. Not like Jennifer does, but I have been around her. To call her a “polished suburban matron” is absurd. What makes her wonderful is the woman inside. It shines to the outside. And I doubt she ever played bridge; she was much too busy sinking her life into philanthropic work.
Jennifer couldn’t grow up with you in podunk Kansas because you left her in podunk Missouri. And she does not base her opinions of people on looks. She loved my mother (Sue’s sister), and my mother was a country tomboy. She loved my mother because she treated her with respect and kindness. She loves L for the same reasons. If YOU were a caring mother, you would accept this and leave L out of it.
Just for the record, I will not be addressing any more of your comments if you choose to leave them. My husband’s family likes to quote Mark Twain, “Never argue with a fool. Someone walking up to you might not be able to tell the difference.” I may have already crossed the line there. If I were Jennifer, I would block you from commenting on my blog. I would want you as far away from me as could be if I were her. But she is her own person and can do what she wants. So if she does not, I will just ignore your comments. You clearly do not understand. I truly hope you can one day. That will never happen if you cannot see past yourself.
Jennifer’s womb donor-
You are pathetic in every sense of the word. Take some personal responsibility. If you at all knew Jenn the way we who love her do, you would know that nothing you just asserted is even remotely true.
Have an axe to grind? Go start your own blog, better yet? GET A SHRINK. You clearly have antisocial disorder.
flutters last blog post..Rage at the Coffee Bar
Lady,
I thought we all made this very clear already. Go away. We don’t want you here. Jennifer does not want you here. No one wants to hear “your side” because it doesn’t matter. This is Jennifer’s space, and if you gave two sh-ts and a raisin about her, you would let her have it in peace.
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