After my tragic divorce, I was wary and weary when I met someone new. I later understood I should have been wary of his mother. My mother defended me when she revealed her true colors.
After a terrible divorce from Jason and with my then-3-year-old daughter, Meredith, clinging to me like a lifeline, I thought “happy family” wasn’t possible. However, I met someone else and felt he was the one until his mother stunned us.
I’m thirty-five, yet when my first marriage abruptly ended a few years ago, I was drained and emotionally broke from years of attempting to mend it. Peace was my only desire when I left. No drama. Truthful promises.
I met Todd eventually. I met him at a friend’s Fourth of July BBQ. He laughed and grabbed a hot dog when I gave Meredith the remaining grilled corn.
I learned everything about him in that moment! He was kind. Unshaken. And he didn’t treat Meredith like baggage I brought to the party! He crouched, asked about her glittering light-up footwear, and listened!
This may have been my first sincere smile in years!
Todd and I married after almost two years of dating. He loved Meredith, not just tolerated her!
He got up before me at 2 a.m. to cover her in blankets and sing off-key lullabies till she fell asleep from a fever! He was steady when I was crazy!
His proposal made me hesitate within but say “yes!” on the outside. I adored him and how he loved my daughter, but I was still recovering from my first divorce. I expected trouble, and it did.
We married two years after meeting. Meredith was five when we bought a modest three-bedroom east side apartment two months after our wedding. Though small, it was ours.
I remember installing butterfly wallpaper in Meredith’s room—her choice—and crying in the hallway, hidden. It wasn’t sad. I found hope, which I thought I’d lost.
We held a housewarming party to commemorate the move. Only close friends and relatives. Helen, my mom, arrived early to assist set up the dessert table and prep the food. Two dozen folding chairs and a cooler of drinks arrived from Todd’s best friend Marcus.
My nephew Riley from San Diego brought a stupid inflatable flamingo he insisted we stay in the living room!
It all seemed right.
Visitors laughed and bonded, making everyone happy. Meredith glided like the hostess of the year, showing off her butterfly-papered room. She also led them to her “special” reading place with a bean bag and glow-in-the-dark stars.
Todd, nevertheless… He twitched. Happy but stiff as he tried to be a gracious host. I considered taking him away to discuss but decided to wait. I eventually attributed it to hosting nerves. I should’ve known.
The doorbell rang at 3:18 p.m., changing everything.
Todd adjusted his entire posture. He froze, put down his drink, and ignored me.
“I’ll get it,” I said, moving.
I entered to find a woman in a blue coat with pearl buttons and two huge luggage that looked like they’d survived the Titanic.
Deborah.
Todd’s mother.
Likely expecting applause, she raised her chin. “Hello, dear,” she said, passing me before I could react. “I’ll live here. I’ll take the kid’s room.”
Her cool, crisp, and unwavering remarks sliced through the air! Just like that. No warning. First-time debate. A command only!
Blinking, I hoped I misheard her! Behind me, the room was deathly quiet. Conversations ended.
Other visitors looked awkward. Even Marcus dropped his drink! Meredith peered out from behind the hallway, holding a crayon and looking confused. Todd stayed still, staring at the floor, and my fantasies of a peaceful family home vanished.
Just when I thought my mother-in-law (MIL) had done her worst, she casually said something that chilled me:
“Your daughter from your first marriage is not welcome here.”
GASP, Meredith! My stomach twisted! She was in my arms, her little hands on my shirt.
The air left the room as everyone froze. I was speechless. I struggled to hold back my wrath as my kid shook and screamed in my arms.
Then my mom stood.
Helen, my strong, no-nonsense mother who once startled a raccoon with a slipper and wine bottle, slowly placed her spoon on the table. She cleaned her hands on her napkin and stood tall.
She murmured in the tense hush as all eyes watched her. Deborah’s big, unblinking eyes were her focus.
She was quiet. She was quiet. She spoke, and even the walls listened!
“Deborah, dear,” she began, sweetly but urgently, “I wasn’t aware you had purchased this apartment.”
Clearly upset, Deborah blinked. “Of course not, but Todd—”
Mom cut her off with a savage smile.
“Let me educate you. You recall the divorce settlement you joyously gossiped about at church? My daughter bought this apartment with it. Although she and Todd saved, her money completed the deal. So she owns the apartment legally. In her name only. Per the purchasing agreement.”
Guest murmured in disbelief.
Todd’s head snapped!
Seeing the reality hit him like a truck. Both saved. Both of us looked. However, after my divorce, I invested smartly and signed the apartment paperwork alone. Habitual, not spiteful. I needed security after what I’d been through.
Todd never asked. I didn’t say. Until now.
Deborah’s jaw tightened. “Well, she can’t seriously think she owns—”
“I can,” I spoke up. “And I do.”
Mom wasn’t done. “As legal owner, my daughter decides who stays and who leaves. Given your warm greeting, I anticipate your departure.
Deborah sputtered, desperately looking at Todd. “You’re going to let them talk to me like this?”
He finally advanced!
“Mom,” he said, firmer than ever, “you’re leaving. Never ever talk about Meredith like that.”
She looked at him like he smacked her!
Hesitated, “You would choose her over your own mother?”
“No,” he said. “I’m choosing my family.”
Silence.
Deborah turned slowly. For a moment, she appeared to dispute. This was obvious even to her. She pulled her baggage to the door with shaking hands.
Marcus yelled clear. “I’d help, but I think I threw my back out lifting that flamingo.”
Riley continued, “Besides, entitlement weighs a ton.”
Deborah glared at them and slammed the door!
Her genuine motive for moving in with us was revealed a week later. She sold her house months earlier, thinking we’d be her retirement plan. She moved in with her cousin Brenda, a “clutter-loving hoarder who lives in a shoebox.”
Karma is funny!
Todd held my hand on the couch after the guests left and the dishes were stacked.
“I should’ve said something sooner,” stated. “I’m sorry.”
Todd was a mama’s boy and avoided conflict with his mother until today. She was a bully who liked to beat him, but Helen was her match. My mother standing up to his mother appeared to drive Todd to act.
He gazed down the hallway to Meredith and my mom’s “butterfly room tea party” in my daughter’s bedroom, a Sunday tradition. Helen and my daughter had been close for years, but that day they became best friends.
He said, “She’s my daughter too.” “Nobody discusses her like that. Not even my mother.”
I leaned against him, my eyes watering.
“I wonder why she’d insist on kicking a five-year-old out instead of just asking to use the guest room,” I replied.
“My mother is odd. She probably sought a reason to yell and wasn’t thinking clearly. “She makes irrational decisions sometimes,” he laughed.
The three of us cuddled in bed that night. Meredith, middle, holding her favorite toy turtle. As she slept peacefully, I sensed something had changed.
We didn’t merely fire a poisonous MIL.
We eliminated my final fears.
We made room for better.
Something real.
If that tale intrigued you, try this one about a daughter-in-law (DIL) whose MIL locks her out to chastise her. The MIL didn’t expect her DIL to fight back harder!
