on still growing up....

I have a fantastic mother-in-law. When I first was engaged to my husband to be, I took a long look at him and his family. I decided they were ok except for his mother who was a pain. But I thought anyway Mr Robertson is there to sort her out, no need for me to worry my head about her (I was young). Five months after we were married, he was called home. I can remember sitting in the bath crying my eyes out thinking, how am I going to get on with this woman?? I made lots of mistakes, I was rude to her a lot (I'm sorry) and ignored her a bit and hoped the problem would go away, maybe she would change now she was a widow. I can't believe writing this how horrible I was actually, but its all true... sadly.

Anyway over time I realised that the more I saw her, the easier it was, we had more to talk about, so I decided to get her over for tea every week. At first it was really hard, I was still rude and patronising. But bit by bit I have come to love this woman and be truely grateful for the way she is part of our family. I have come to understand that the negative view that she has of life, is really her just feeling the hurts of the world around her. She is so compassionate. She never puts us down, never makes us feel foolish for making silly choices. She is always respectful of our family unit and always grateful to be part of it. She loves us all unconditionally and we love her too. Recently she had a health scare and I realised that I am so not ready to loose her yet. I realise that I have changed, I think she is still the same, but now I love her for who she is... a truely awesome and inspiring, yet contradictory woman.

Today my mother-in-law is 83. We gave her an ipod (she will get $2 christmas pressy!). She said, "Great, how do I use it!" and we showed her how and she says that she will use it when she goes walking. This is from the lady who never bothered to learn metric, still thinks in inches and yards. She's come a long way. Back when metric came in (and that's a few years ago now) she felt like her life was over, she felt old and boxed in, and could not see the point in learning a new skill that she did not see her life as going to be long enough to bother learning.

Now here she is 83 and learning again. She is learning how to live and how to make changes, big life changes. Go for it Nana Robbie... have a happy birthday.