Chapter 12 - WHAT HAPPENED TO LINDA AFTER I WAS BORNMom eventually told the full story in therapy.
She had given birth to me by cesarean section.
Her mother-in-law—my grandmother Ruth—arrived four days later.
Thanksgiving week.
Twelve relatives expected.
Ruth told Mom:
“Women don’t go to bed because they had a baby.”
Mom cooked.
Turkey.
Potatoes.
Pie.
She tore part of her incision.
Developed an infection.
Spent another three days in the hospital.
I stared when she told me.
“Then why would you do anything similar to Maya?”
Mom’s answer came too fast.
“I wasn’t like Maya.”
“What does that mean?”
“I handled it.”
“You were hospitalized.”
“I survived.”
There.
Suffering had become credential.
If Maya did not endure what Linda endured, then Maya was weaker.
If Maya received more care than Linda received, it implied Linda had deserved care too.
May you like
That was the truth she could not tolerate.
People sometimes preserve old abuse by calling it tradition.
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