我先生AE的親生父母在兒子高中畢業後,即將離家去外地上大學前的那個暑假裏,在結婚23年後,竟然也加入了美國70年代盛行起來的Middle age crisis的行列,離婚了。後來他倆又各自再婚,重組家庭二十多年。所以AE有兩個媽,一個親媽卡琳,一個繼母艾瑪,我和AE結婚後,也就順理成章有了這兩位老美婆婆。前些年,AE的親媽卡琳在她83歲時謝世了(AE的父母同年先後去世),他的繼母艾瑪現在92歲了,還自己住在她和AE父親比爾住了二十幾年的老宅裏,我也還時不時收到她多年自詡不凡的Elma‘s Poisonous mails(艾瑪毒藥信件)。。
Through our lengthy (in-law) complex relationship, Carlene earned my respect for her independent and responsible life style. I also really admired her determination and bravery when she had to face difficult situations, and very hard decisions.
In her last November, even though she was very ill, and as a responsible citizen as she always was, she made a thorough and careful analysis, chose and voted for her preferred presidential candidate. She never laid any burden to her children for tough decisions, such as when she had to give up her car key and sell her home to move into a retirement facility. Even when she told her children and her doctor to stop her medical treatment, she expressed her will in such calm, brave and at the matter of the fact manner. She kept her dignity and took care of her own business until her last day.
I could say Carlene was a very strong-willed American mother-in-law and I was a quite headstrong Chinese daughter- in- law, we had many differences,of course.
Between Carlene and me, however, I respected and admired her in many respects. I learned many good things from her, which I really appreciated.