Shira tried to understand the woman who raised her husband. She just couldn’t

“Idon’t remember why I was lonely, or even if I was.” —John Green, The Anthropocene Reviewed, Ep #22

Chippewa Park was exactly what she was looking for. Only a few blocks from the house, a little playground and field, no place to really get lost or run too far, perfect for a four-year-old, two-year-old, and expectant mom.

The only problem Shira had with it was why she had to find it herself.

“I don’t remember,” Ephraim had said in the morning as he brushed Danish crumbs off his slacks and checked his sleeve cuffs to see if his watch peeked out. First day of orientation. He was distracted and nervous, though playing macho, Shira could tell. But really, he couldn’t remember a single park or playground near where he grew up?

“Ask Mommy,” he said.

So, she had. Her mother-in-law had looked at her as if she had asked where the nearest UFO sighting was.

“No clue,” she’d responded briskly. “It was so many years ago, I literally can’t remember the last time I paid attention to playgrounds. Always found them boring anyway.”

Watching Racheli attempt to climb the blue, green, and yellow “rock wall,” Shira tried to understand the woman who raised her husband. She just couldn’t. Rachel Tendler often spoke about remembering that your parents and in-laws are people too, with hopes and dream and lives, so much more than the role you see them in. That made sense, but with her mother-in-law, she had the opposite problem. Her mother-in-law was all person, where was the mother?