I made the (admittedly lame) comment to my mom today that if I had a daughter, she’d have to move to South America. (Because Mom moved from Illinois to Kentucky, and I moved from Kentucky to Georgia. We just keep going south. See? Ha, ha.)
Mom didn’t laugh, or even tell me how stupid that joke was. Instead, she very seriously told me that I shouldn’t focus my happiness on something that might not happen. She said she wants me to be happy. She may have even said that plenty of people are happy without children. I don’t actually know. I can’t remember exactly what she said. It’s like my brain shut down when she said it, or started adding to what she was saying, or something.
I tried to say that I was getting over it, but that felt like a lie so I didn’t say anything.