Another Mom Story

Broken Windshield, Celina TX. When I was going through my divorce 22 years ago, at age 38, I stayed at her place for a few days. I'm an only child, and Dad died when I was 13, so she's it, in terms of close family. This is someone who has never said "I love you" or initiated a hug, so you can understand the weird feeling of going to such a person for comfort, but again... she's what I had. She told me I looked awful. I hadn't slept well in a couple of days, so this was probably true. Then she took my picture, something she rarely does outside of Christmas. I remember looking at her and thinking, "Why?" but I was exhausted and blew it off. This was with a real camera, not a cell phone. A week later we were at dinner with a high school friend of mine and his parents. She pulled out the photo and showed them. "See how hurt he was?" I wanted to crawl under the table. The parents looked petrified. I said, "What are you doing?" and tried to take it away from her, but she snatched it back…