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In my mother's defense, she was raised by a wo external validation in the form of a man's appreciation of her outward attributes as well as her willingness to hop into bed quickly

My grandn the waiver to allow e of sixteen Likely, I would think, so she herself could hit the dating pool once again without a young, pretty daughter around re the men what other kind of options there were out there

Thatain at seventeen

I was a product of a fling between her first and second husbands I coe that at least my mother had actually likedweekend, rather than simply attached herself to him as a ile ego

Being the unplanned baby at the ripe old age of eighteen meant that I was simply in her way a lot of the time And, of course, in the way of every man in her life as well

What was less sexy than a screa a new lover?

My childhood saving grace cahbor htnot a stitch of maternal instincts, she found herself strapped with a colicky newborn who did nothing but test out her lungs, sohbor who had birthed nine children of her own, all long grown and gone

Tilly was soft in all ways that word can be used Kind-hearted, even-tely squishy

Even as my mom moved from place to place—and man tooods Which never ceased to driveto et anywhere in life if she's always stuffing her face?

Luckily, I inherited my mother's quicke Not super

Unluckily, I lost Tilly when I elve

Which, in retrospect, with her age and constant issues with diabetes and blood pressure, it really was aA part ofbecause she loved me just as much as I loved her, and she didn't want to leave me—for all intents and purposes—alone in the world

Alone is exactly what I was, too

I always had a roos No one to pick me up after school No comfort on hard days

Despite all of this, which must say a hell of a lot about parent-child innate bonds based on nothing but blood, I loved my mother