Hey, Severn:

Thanks for stopping by. You touched on an interesting point.. the flowering of some women after their husbands are gone. My Mother existed to keep my Father from being unhappy. That wasn't all that uncommon a role for women of my Mother's generation. "Don't get your Father mad!"

When my Father died 8 years ago (and there was much that I loved about him, and I miss him,) suddenly Mom could be Esther Holliday again. Not just Elmer's wife. The first thing we did after the memorial service was to go out and buy a stereo for Mom. Dad didn't like music in the apartment and when he didn't like something, he made sure that you couldn't enjoy it either. After I set up the system and bought Mom some CDs, she wanted to go out to eat at one of her favorite restaurants she hadn't been to in years because my Father got mad once when he thought he was overcharged and refused to go there. When I ordered a burrito, she ordered one too, even though she wasn't sure what it was and wasn't too good on spicy food. She ordered it because she could. She's been blessed with eight years of being herself after almost 70 years of interruption...

Go WOMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Free at last!

I say that, despite loving my Father. He was to some extent a victim of his own generation, too.

Jerry