**Diary Entry: The Mother-in-Law**
Geraldine Margaret was a born mother-in-law. Not the quiet, reserved kind, but the loud, brash, unapologetic sort. Her own mother, Lucy, had nervously confided in friends about her newborn daughter:
*”She lies there in her cot, scowling, pursing her lips, frowningspitting image of a mother-in-law already!”*
Luckily, Lucys own mother-in-law, Valerie Grace, lived in the next county and rarely visited. But when she did, the whole bakery where Lucy worked knew about it. The dough wouldnt rise, shed mix up vanilla and baking powder, the pies came out lopsided, and poor Lucy jumped at every sound.
*”Listen, take unpaid leave,”* snapped the manager. *”Come back once shes gone.”*
*”Margaret, have mercy!”* Lucy tore off her starch-stiff cap and clutched it to her chest. *”Works my only escape! Otherwise, Ill spend all day pandering to her and apologising.”*
*”Apologising? For what?”*
*”Everything! How I cook, how I clean, how I treat her sonMargaret, I dont even draw the curtains right!”*
*”And how should you?”*
*”No idea. But not like this!”*
When Geraldine was born, Valerie Grace swooped in to “help.” She insisted the baby be named after her late mother, had her christened (despite her atheist parents objections), terrorised the midwife, and left convinced her dim-witted daughter-in-law would ruin the child. Lucy cried for a week. Her husband, Henry, dipped into his boat savings and bought her a gold necklace to cheer her up.
Against all odds, the baby thrived. Geraldine walked early, mastered the potty fast, and spoke clearlytoo clearly. By five, she was baffling neighbours with philosophical questions: *”What is love? Why do people smile?”* Lucys bakery friends and Henrys factory matesgood-hearted but simple folkjust stammered and predicted great things for her.
She handled her formidable grandmother effortlessly. Once, Valerie arrived in a rage about their new sofa*”Beige? Impractical!”*and five-year-old Geraldine grabbed her bags and dragged them to the door.
*”Oi! Where dyou think youre taking my things?”*
*”You didnt come with love. You shout at Mum. Go home.”*
*”Youve turned her against me!”* shrieked Valerie.
Geraldine shoved her new doll in the womans face. *”Take it. I dont want your gifts. Learn some manners.”*
*”Got an earful, eh, Mum?”* Henry laughed. *”Our Gerrys no pushover. Last time I came home tipsy, she lectured me for a week.”*
After that, Lucy kept Geraldine home when Valerie visited, ensuring the old woman left with grievances unspoken.
At school, Geraldines leadership shonehead girl, debate captain, top marks in maths and sciencethough she dismissed literature. *”Rabbits dont talk. Flying on devils? Nonsense. And Hardys just dull.”*
Teachers urged university, but she chose distance learningLucys health was shaky, and Valerie, now 70, needed visits. Then Daniel Cartwright, the factory foremans son, returned from the army, saw her in her sky-blue graduation dress, and gaped.
*”Gerry, you look a proper bride!”*
*”Bride? At my wedding, Ill be queen.”*
*”Done!”* he grinned. *”Ill get Mum to sort a velvet suit.”*
*”Grey, not black. Smart.”*
Without a single *”I love you”* or kiss, they planned guest lists, honeymoons, and sons names. They moved to the cityGerry for her studies, Dan to finish his degreethen married, because why waste a good plan? Their first son, Alex, arrived on schedule. By the time Geraldine graduated, shed had two more boys.
Returning to work, she climbed the ranks swiftly, outpacing Dan. He, though kind, lacked ambitioncontent to fish with his father-in-law while Gerry hustled. Colleagues called her a *”force of nature”*; those who crossed her whispered *”mother-in-law”* and pitied future daughters-in-law.
She admitted to friends Tanya and Vera that modern girls irked her, and shed never hold her tongue.
Her eldest, Alex, took after Daneasygoing, unambitious, fond of fishing. The middle, William, was her doublebold, sharp, asking at five, *”How do I be a good man?”* The youngest, Stanley, swung between extremesdriven one day, weeping over poetry the next.
Too busy eyeing the deputy director role, Gerry barely noticed her sons growing upuntil Alex brought home Katy.
*”Mum, Dadthis is Katy.”*
The busty, confident brunette made Henry whistle; Geraldines eyes flashed.
Katy sunbathed instead of gardening, scorned hearty meals, moaned about the lack of sushi bars, and wasted water showering: *”No pool? Disgraceful.”*
*”Hows the daughter-in-law?”* Tanya and Vera prodded.
*”Bright,”* Gerry said tightly. *”Made Alex study English. Theyre moving abroad.”*
*”Youre letting him go?”*
*”Better they see the world.”*
They married quietly before leavingno fuss, just cash for their start abroad.
*”No wedding, no real vows,”* Tanya sniffed.
*”Well see whose marriage lasts,”* Geraldine shot back. *”Ours debt-free, or yours, still paying off your sons booze-up?”*
Calls were rare, but Gerry shrugged: *”No news is good news.”*
Then Alex quit engineering to study ichthyology.
*”Fishing patrol?”* Gerry groaned.
*”Good move,”* Dan said. *”He loves it. Katy backed himunlike us with the navy.”*
Valeries death brought sad choresselling her house, rehoming her goat (ironically named Lucy). Amid it all, Gerry missed her sons becoming men.
William brought home Alicetimid, pale, hiding behind him.
*”Gerryll eat her alive,”* Vera whispered.
But Alice wept when Gerry tried to shoo her from the kitchen. *”I wanted to make lasagne!”*
*”Go on, love,”* Gerry sighed.
Twinsa boy and girlsealed it. Alice was *”our daughter”* now.
Stanley took his time. After university, he drove lorries abroad, then returned to study coding. At 30, he brought home Juliea giggling sprite who cracked up at Gerrys initials (*”Double G! Hows she coping?”*).
At the wedding, Julie bolted mid-ceremony, laughing into a plaster Cupid. Now they live in the cityStan codes, Julie animates ads, and their daughter, Cleo, laughs like her mum.
As for Gerry?
*”Whod have thought our tough, sharp Geraldine would turn out such a soft touch?”* Tanya and Vera marvel. *”All her daughters-in-law are gems. Luckor did we misjudge her?”*
**Lesson:** Sometimes, the traits we resist most in others are the ones we secretly share. Life has a way of humbling even the sternest among us.
