I am currently reading Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah. She is one of my favorite authors and I aim to read all of her books. If ever there were daughters that were not close to, or could not get along with their mother, the divide couldn’t possibly be any bigger than in this book. The mother lives behind a closed wall, incapable of loving her daughters, yet loving her husband with open devotion. Ironically when the daughters think and complain about their mother, they lose sight of the fact that they are just like her.
I think that goes for most of us. How many of us, as daughters, caught ourselves being our mother and said, “Oh no! I’m becoming my mom!” With me, it’s been so bad at times, my husband would say, “Ok, Marie”. (my mom’s name)
I always laughed. I loved my mom and I could think of worse things in this world than becoming her. She taught me things I couldn’t learn in school. Such as how to raise children, be a wife, keep a home clean, shop, drive, and a million other life skills I’m glad I paid attention to and learned. There were things, though, that she didn’t know and I had to learn myself. Such as going away to college and having a career. My mom was June Cleaver II and life outside of her home was foreign to her, especially for a woman. I like to think I made the best of both worlds and we taught each other a bit about life.
Unlike the characters in the story, I’m glad we yelled, and talked, and expressed our feelings in our house. Winter Garden, so far, is a very cold story. I hope it warms up soon!
And so, as another day goes by, I curl up on a rainy night with a good book, and…I have written.
Leave a Reply