On Saturday at the local market, I ran into my former mother-in-law. She looked very different, much older. I rushed over to greet her and started asking about her life. She didn’t complain about her son, but I immediately sensed that things were tough. She had to leave but asked me to call her the next day. I felt sorry for my former mother-in-law; I had lived with her for 10 years and we got along well. Then her son brought a new daughter-in-law, claiming she would be better than me.
I lived with my husband in my mother-in-law’s flat for a decade. Peter had immediately said we didn’t need to buy our own place since his mum had no one else besides him, so the flat was certain to be inherited by us. His words didn’t sit right with me; he shouldn’t have spoken that way. When I started living with my mother-in-law, I noticed she was a very calm and kind woman. She radiated warmth.
After our marriage, my husband completely changed his attitude towards me; even the birth of our little son didn’t alter anything. I didn’t feel like we were a couple. I could only speak honestly with my mother-in-law. I never said a bad word about her son, out of respect for her, yet she understood everything. Throughout those years, she was a great help with my child.
She would take our son to nursery, then to school, and always cooked meals for us. A decade passed, and to everyone’s surprise, my husband announced he was filing for divorce. He immediately claimed he wasn’t going anywhere and would continue living there because it was his home, insisting that I needed to move out. For the first time, my mother-in-law intervened in our discussion, asking her son to reconsider, save the family, and think of the child. Yet all these talks were futile, as he had already made up his mind and wouldn’t listen to anyone. I packed my things and left. His new wife moved in with him. I rented a room from a woman.
Life is tough now, as I earn very little, and my child and I live in someone else’s home. The woman we stay with isn’t unkind but has a difficult personality—she’s always finding fault with something, and whatever I do seems wrong to her. My son and I have even started eating our meals in our room to avoid her.
One day, at the local market, I saw my mother-in-law again; her eyes were filled with sadness. She didn’t complain about her son, but I realized she wasn’t living alone in her own house either. We spoke openly, and she asked me to call her. I feel for my mother-in-law and would have her live with me if I could; she is a good person and would be of great help, but I don’t even have my own place to stay. What should I do?
