My Dear Mom

I feel so bad for my mom right now.

Just because he had to buy this place so abruptly without thinking about it all the way through.

When he was getting ready to buy this place my mom and I both told him from the start that we had no intention of leaving California with him. He told us that he didn't need our help and went along with his plans. When he realized that his new store was just too much to handle by himself, he called my mom and asked for her help. He called me too and asked me to help during summer, but I declined because I couldn't just leave my job and summer school.

Mom however decided to support him and sold her store which gave her the luxury of leaving home after 9:30 am in the morning and come home before 6pm at night and still gave her the convenience of a 10 minute drive from home. She didn't have much choice on her part.

Now she's stuck in a business that runs 17 hrs a day 365 days a year!

Her store in California was situated in a upper middle class neighborhood so she usually dealt with nice people who were educated, professional, or retired but now she has to do business in a ghetto neighborhood.

I feel so frustrated. I know that when I go back to school next year things will be good for me, but how will I be able to sleep at night and enjoy life when I know that she's in this wasteland?

We were discussing my future today and she said to me "you have your own life to live. you have your own education to finish, your own friends to meet, and your own career to pursue. I can't keep you here and let you hold off on your life."

That broke my heart because I knew that she was talking about herself too. I understood how she must feel. Becoming newly widowed in a strange new town away from her home, friends, family and church. She only had less than two days to meet with her friends after it happened to vent and cry with them or be comforted by them before she had to go back. Mom never wanted to come here in the first place.

I guess I've learned from example that the role of a husband is to protect your wife and create stability for her and to never put your family in a vulnerable position.