My mother didn’t have apron strings
for me to hold onto,
She had a noose firmly fitted
around my neck.
I spent my life waiting
for the chair beneath me
to suddenly disappear.

I played my role perfectly.
I let her take all my money,
I agreed with her low opinion
of my character and
I emptied her commode when
she took center stage in the drama
of sickness and her steadfast
denial of her own impending death.

I’m not sure how I survived,
but somehow, I took off the noose
and built a new life –
moving thousands of miles away
from where she is buried.
I always thought I would go “home”
someday and join her and
the others in the family plot,
But an unexpected event took place:

I married a man who loves me,
and to my surprise,
his mother and father also love me.
I am amazed, humbled, and grateful
to have a real home.
So much so, when my own drama
comes to an end,
my ashes will be dropped into
the ground next to them.

With that, I will have succeeded
in disappointing my mother for the last time.