My mother, a godsend. Hard to imagine. My dad and I have relived the beats of this story many times since, even though my mom doesn’t like him filling my head with romance. She thinks his bang-o! version creates unrealistic expectations. Your father makes it sound like a Gidget movie, Kelly. Even if she was romantic once, a Baltimore miss who devoured My Ántonia and let herself be twirled on a dance floor by a stranger, those girlish days are gone. She was a mother now, my mother, and she didn’t trust the dreamy look in my eye, not one bit. Picking a husband was a serious matter best done with
...more
