My mother had been frugal her entire life. When she was home alone, she wouldn't even buy meat for herself.
But for me, every single meal had the best fish and the best cuts she could find. When I tried to give her money for food, she flat-out refused.
After I finished eating, she'd scrape together whatever was left on the plates, eat a few quick bites, then go right back to the laundry, the cooking, the feeding, the diaper changes.
At night, she carried the baby into her own room so the crying wouldn't wake me.
For thirty days straight, she never took a single day off. She never slept through a single night.
Watching her grow thinner by the day from sheer exhaustion, I couldn't bear it anymore. I suggested she take a break and let me hire a postpartum nurse instead.
What did Seth say at the time?
"Do you know how expensive those nurses are? Besides, your mom is family. She'll take better care of you and the baby than some stranger ever could."
And now?
Now that they were demanding my mother pay for her stay, suddenly she was a stranger.
Seeing my mother frozen in place, Cornelia frowned, her tone sharpening with impatience: