Everything Will Go as I Desire

Margaret Whitmore sat in her rocking chair, knitting needles clicking softly in her hands. Nearby, on the well-worn settee, her grandson slept soundly. She gazed at him with quiet fondness and a touch of pride. “Growing up strong and healthy, and all down to my efforts,” she mused to herself.

Margaret had always prided herself on her thriftiness. In her younger days, when she and her husband had first set up house, they’d had to count every penny. But it was then she learned to find joy in life’s simple things and to make do with what they had. She knew how to stretch a handful of ingredients into a hearty meal, how to mend old clothes so they’d last years longer, and how to raise children—happy and well-fed—without wasting a farthing.

Now that her daughter, Anne, had married Vincent, Margaret couldn’t help but notice how little Vincent seemed to care about saving. He earned a fair wage, yet in her eyes, it was all squandered—new toys, expensive nappies, the latest fashions for the baby. “In my day, women birthed in the fields!” she’d often mutter, thinking back to times when people made do with far less.

She glanced at her grandson, snug in a jumper passed down by a neighbour. “Why waste good money on new things when the old ones serve just as well?” Margaret wondered. She saw how Anne tried to follow her example, though Vincent clearly bristled at it. He was always bringing home something new, blind to the simple truth that it wasn’t about how much one had, but how wisely one used it.

Margaret sighed and returned to her knitting. “Young folk these days,” she thought. “Always chasing after the newest, the finest, the costliest. Back in my time, people knew how to be content with little—and were happier for it.” She remembered raising Anne, teaching her the value of hard work and frugality.

Meanwhile, Vincent sat in his study, staring out at the darkening sky. Work had been the usual routine, but today his mind refused to focus on ledgers and reports. Instead, it kept circling back to the same old argument at home. Anne and her mother, Margaret, had turned his life into a relentless sermon on thrift.

There’d been lean years, of course—times when every shilling had to stretch till it snapped. Saving had been necessary then. But things had changed when Vincent took up his new position. Now, his wages were enough to live comfortably, without fretting over every pence. Yet Anne and Margaret carried on as if they were still counting coins.

Every time he tried to do something generous—buy Anne a dress, replace her worn-out phone—he was met with resistance. Anne would hunt for cheaper alternatives or insist the old one still had life in it, while Margaret would launch into another lecture about “the good old simple days.”

The real battle had come with the baby. You’d think they’d want the best for the child. But no—Anne refused proper nappies, preferring cloth rags “just like in Mum’s day.” She skimped on everything, from food to clothes, as if hardship were a virtue.

Vincent had tried reasoning with her. They had the means now—why not give their son comfort and safety? But his arguments just bounced off. Anne stood firm, backed by Margaret’s endless tales of how people “got by just fine without all this nonsense.”

One evening, after yet another row, Vincent decided to settle it once and for all. He gathered the family at the table and laid out his case. Money, he explained, was a tool for better living—not something to hoard for its own sake. A sensible middle ground existed between waste and miserliness.

But it was no use. Anne and Margaret wouldn’t budge. “We managed without all this before,” they insisted. “It’s all just extravagance.” As frustration simmered inside him, Vincent realised arguing was pointless. But what else could he do?

Reforming Anne seemed impossible. “Divorce is out of the question,” he thought.

Yet as he sat there, watching the night deepen beyond the window, his resolve hardened.

“They won’t have their way,” Vincent said aloud. “I won’t let them mould my son. I won’t back down. Things will be done as I say.”

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Everything Will Go as I Desire