We’d say good-night to our parents and trot off to bed then read for a while or talk about girl stuff.
One night, while my sister and I were reading, our mother came into our room.
Now, our mother wasn’t one to sit on our bed and have homey little “girl chats”. In fact, she wasn’t one to come upstairs after we’d gone to bed.
Mother may have been near this age at the time of the event.
On this night, she not only came into our room, she also sat on our bed.
“Girls,” she said. “Your children will be with you for 18 to 20 years then they’ll move on and make a life for themselves. After that, there will just be you and your husband. If the two of you have ignored each other those 18 to 20 years because you focused so much on raising your children and focusing on careers, the two of you will feel a little bit like strangers. Keep your marriage alive while you’re working and raising children.”
I was 15. My sister was 16. We looked at each other for a few seconds then went back to our books. Eventually, we would find out what she meant. But that night, it was still an utter mystery.
I wrote this 5 years ago.