Always Learning

My mother-in-law has been a widow for five years and is one of the toughest broads I know.  Left on a doorstep of a convent 87 years ago, she was adopted by a couple that preferred a boy but settled for a girl.  She held her own on the farm in Iowa and married a soldier after only three dates.  He was absent for much of those early years either fighting in a war or building a business.  She quietly made it all work while raising four boys.  It's what women did.

The other day Tom picked up his mother's absentee ballot.  He knew his mother best but he just wasn't sure.  he wanted to believe that she voted for Obama but he didn't know and it bugged him. And so, he peeked.  It turns out for 61 years worth of elections my sweet mother-in-law would smile and nod in agreement with her conservative husband.  Then, she would quietly and confidently cast her ballot and cancel his vote with hers.