I Don’t Want To Be My Ex-Mom In Law

My ex-mom-in-law passed away in 2008.  She died due to cancer.  My ex-mom-in-law (EMIL) was always good to me.  Even though she bitched about me to my son a lot, face to face with me she was nice.  

I liked that she was always strong and could stand her ground on all things despite being in a household of 4 tall (over 6 ft), headstrong men (husband + 3 sons).

Thing with EMIL was that she always complained.  I remember spending a lot of time with her in the kitchen.  EMIL was always cooking or washing something or the other.  She had an M.A in English Literature and taught at Mt Carmel College for a time during “those” days as she would like to say.   Being an orphan with a rich inheritance, EMIL’s relative thought it best to get her married off to the first person they could get hold of – which happened to be Ex-Father in law (EFIL).

EMIL would always complain that EFIL was not good enough and that she had spent her entire inheritance on getting EFIL’s folks to a certain level in life.  EMIL used to say that she sacrificed a lot in life and how EFIL was so ungrateful.

What I distinctly remember though is, once after listening to EMIL complain a lot, thinking why didn’t she do something about her situation earlier?  Why didn’t she just walk out?  I remember telling myself that I would never age being so bitter about life.  And that I would never complain like this to my daughter-in-law.

Today I thought of her.