Chapter 9 - MY MOTHER WROTE A LETTER
Three months passed before Mom contacted us again.
Not by surprise visit.
Good.
A letter arrived.
I opened mine first.
She wrote:
I thought I was helping you.
Old language.
Then:
That belief let me ignore the fact that Hannah was asking me to stop.
Better.
She admitted she had treated our home as if my income and my name gave her special status.
She admitted she disliked that Hannah did not defer to her.
Then:
I told myself I was teaching her how to care for a family. In reality, I was demanding she care for me and my friends while injured.
No excuse.
Finally:
I also involved Sophie in adult judgments about her mother. That was wrong.
That sentence mattered most.
I showed Hannah.
She read it slowly.
Then set it down.
“Do you believe her?”
“I believe she wrote it.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
I thought.
“I think she understands more than before.”
Hannah nodded.
“Do you want her back in the house?”
“No.”
Immediate.
She looked relieved.
An apology could be real.
A boundary could remain.
May you like
Both could exist.
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