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MOTHER-IN-LAW - One of my happy memories is that of my wife's mother. Some people complain and make jokes about their mother-in-law but I was blessed to have had the best mother-in-law a person could hope for. After her husband died she expressed her wishes to spend more time with us here in the USA. My sister-in-law worked for the airlines and often arranged for her to visit us in Atlanta. She was a strong, happy little old German lady from the old school that believed a woman should do everything she could to please her husband, within reason of course. I would jokingly tell my wife that if she wasn't nice to me I was going to tell her mother. That didn't go over too well.

We all called her Oma, which is German for grandmother. She loved the children and played games with them a lot. She had a tough time with the English language but had a very distinctive and unusual way of making herself known and understood. We lived in a small apartment and both my wife and I worked so Oma would watch the kids and cook dinner for us. She didn't quite understand the money but went shopping anyway. There was a national brand grocery store in our neighborhood where we frequently shopped and most of the employees knew us by sight. We took Oma there one time and from then on they knew her. They made a game of following her around in the store trying to guess what it was she was trying to buy. She would go to the butcher for a pork roast. If the butcher was having trouble understanding her, she would turn sideways and pat herself on the rear end and say "oink, oink" and he would give her the roast. She would cluck like a chicken for eggs and moo for milk. They absolutely loved her in that store.

When she got to the cashier, if she didn't have enough money with her, the cashier would try to put some things aside. Oma would bring them right back saying, "Ich muss das haben," (I must have this). The cashier would make a little note of how much she was short and the next time my wife or I happened to be in the store she would say, "Oma was in here yesterday." We knew exactly what that meant and we would ask how much we owed. Oma would tell my wife that they charged too much for the things she wanted so she refused to pay that much and negotiated the price down. I don't think she ever knew that we were coming behind her and paying the difference.

Oma was a magnificent cook. I gained fifteen pounds in no time at all. I couldn't stop eating that great food. She taught my wife the real way to make apple struddle, German potato salad, pancakes and many other great recipes.

Her favorite board game was Aggravation. She loved to bump you out and send you back to go. I always thought she cheated when nobody was looking. She denied it of course but laughed and kept playing. She was a great sport and would try almost anything that we suggested. She loved her little cocktails and was never known to refuse one on an airplane or at a party. She flew all over the states with her daughter and said the best part was that no matter where they went she always met some Germans there, even in Alaska.

She came with us when we moved to Miami and stayed until her visa nearly expired and she had to leave. I hated to see her go and really missed her. She was a wonderful, loving, beautiful woman. The term mother-in-law didn't fit, just mother would have been better.

Learn more about this author, Sylvester Pierpoint (aka John Jeffries).
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