Jaspur's She Stories

    They both fell into separate beds, allowing exhaustion to take over.   It had been a marathon day.   She herself hadn’t slept more than 4 hours in a row since she had stepped off the airplane 2 days earlier.   Grandma, in her early 80s, had endured the long road trip to see her son’s decline.   The sunlight had brought the 8:00am meeting.   They all knew what the meeting was for.   As his only child, she had won a spot on this particular committee.   Grandma was invited in as well.   He had married his longtime girlfriend, about two years earlier, was the only other invitee.   She arrived at the hospital at 7:55 with her entourage in tow.   Somehow, the wife’s sister and nephew were also ushered into the small room for support.   It was made clear as the meeting began that she as his daughter, and wifey would be the decision makers in the room.   Everyone else was just there to support.   The conversation...

              They faced each other, outside standing near the park bench.  It was the first time they disagreed, the first real decision as a married couple, that needed to be made.  And they disagreed.      Funny thing was, by the time she was a teenager she had decided she wouldn't even have children.  Her relationship with her mother and father, contentious.  Her family, non traditional, dysfunctional even.  With cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents states away there wasn't much to bond with nearby.  She didn't particularly value or look up to her own parents.  They certainly didn't seem very happy or satisfied with their own lives.  Why would she inflict a similar dreary existence on a another person?  The idea of staying single and childless fit into her idea of the path of her life.   But her teenager self seemed a lifetime away.  Now, she had been married all of o...