This week, my Auntie Mayme and Cousin Mickey are here for a short visit from their homes in North Dakota. Auntie Mayme is my mom's sister. She's the second oldest, my mom being the oldest. Now, over the years, and especially this past year I have noticed that my mom has grown increasingly shorter. She used to be about 5'9" for most of her life. At 92 she is about 5'2" right now.
Last night I went to my sister's house for dinner to see my Auntie and Cousin. When my Auntie stepped out of her room I noticed that she too is about 5'2" right now! The funny part was that they had just come back from seeing their other sister in the Chicago area earlier that day. When I asked how that visit was and how sister was they said, with some surprise, "She got SO SHORT!" Hahaha!! It must be a famiy trait. I can only imagine that at some point in my life my now 5'11" frame will shrink down to about 5'2"!
Another very telling thing happened last night as well. You see, my mom has always been the kind of mom that would tell us to do something - say, set the table or make a salad, whatever - and then she would stand there and "supervise" us letting us know we were "doing it wrong". "Doing it wrong" meant that we were doing it in a way that she would never do it whether our way was equally effective or not. Last night my Cousing Mickey was told by my Auntie to cut up some onions for a dish she was making. Then she proceeded to stand there "supervising" her telling her she was cutting them "wrong" and not "cutting enough onions". It was comical to see that even now at our age these women do this. No matter how old we, the children get, mom's will always "know best" even if we are completely capable of doing whatever it is they are asking us to do. It was also funny to see this dynamic happening to my Cousin because that was a sure sign that this "supervising" thing was something my Grandma must have done to them all their lives too.
So it goes....mothers and daughters...tall and short and telling each other what to do.
1 comment:
Very good Mary! I have been watching my dear Mom get increasingly shorter over the years.
As far as your other point, I know all too well about being "asked" to do something and then being told precisely how it should be done. In the case of my Mom it is definitely an inherited trait, albeit one that I am not very fond of…
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