我先生AE的亲生父母在儿子高中毕业后,即将离家去外地上大学前的那个暑假里,在结婚23年后,竟然也加入了美国70年代盛行起来的Middle age crisis的行列,离婚了。后来他俩又各自再婚,重组家庭二十多年。所以AE有两个妈,一个亲妈卡琳,一个继母艾玛,我和AE结婚后,也就顺理成章有了这两位老美婆婆。前些年,AE的亲妈卡琳在她83岁时谢世了(AE的父母同年先后去世),他的继母艾玛现在92岁了,还自己住在她和AE父亲比尔住了二十几年的老宅里,我也还时不时收到她多年自诩不凡的Elma‘s Poisonous mails(艾玛毒药信件)。。
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.