by Jacque E

Created on: February 24, 2008   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

I have had the unfortunate luck to have experienced 2 mother in-laws. One from my previous marriage and now a new one, with my current husband. Honestly it is like comparing apples and oranges. I went from a mother in-law that only wanted to be around her son and myself if we had something to give her (financially) to a mother in-law that was more than happy not to see me, as long as she would see her son every weekend. Now of course I occasionally received and invitation to go around and share dinner with them. But for most part I would be happy to let my other half go off to see his mother and I would catch up on sleep.

I wont even go into the most humiliating day of my life, when I first met my now mother in-law, no fault of hers. It was an overdue reunion between my then boyfriend and me. We had, had a long distance relationship and I had flow to his house to seek out houses to live in. He then lived with his parents. When I woke up that first day and met her, all I wanted to do was crawl into a hole and not come out. Talk about starting off on the wrong foot.

When I first moved in with my now husband I was taken aside by his mother and given "THE talk". I don't think she approved of my previous failed marriage. She asked me my intentions; she told me how everything should be wrapped up in a nice neat package. She even told me I shouldn't have kids before marriage. I nodded yes, yes, yes, till this point when I nicely told her that I would have children before I EVER got married again. She had always been someone who is good to be around, mainly in small doses. I always watched my words in case they would be used against me later.

Now let's skip forward 3 years and I am in hospital with the birth of her first grandchild. In my somewhat medicated state, I think I got in a dig about "See I told you I would have a child before I married again" Of course at this point I could do nothing wrong, I had given birth to the blessed one. But that all changed after a big Christmas gathering. We had our first fight, walls quivered, men ran for cover and EVERYTHING changed.

I don't think I saw her much in the months that followed. I kept a low profile and used my tiredness from the baby as an excuse not to visit. Soon after we moved a few states away, I would be closer to my side of the family, for support and help.

Unfortunately 8 months later she was diagnosed with a mysterious illness that they couldn't find a name for. Her health deteriorated and her way of life became

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