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Show KATHLEEN NORRIS Mother-in-Law Wins a Daughter "pHIS IS THE STORY of Margery i Tait of Toledo, 60 years old. I find her letter so full of strength and inspiration that I am passing it on almost entire. "My good husband died 11 years ago," writes Margery." At 49 I was left with a few thousands in the bank, and two sons, both steady and both working. But Robert was killed at Coral Sea, and when Tom came back, a captain and decorated, dec-orated, he had to start over, and married almost immediately a girl for whom I had neither liking nor respect. I can write this frankly, because she neither liked nor respected re-spected me in that dark time, as we both admitted later, and because be-cause I know you will disguise our identities if you use my letter. "Cathy thought I had been a weak and extravagant mother and had spoiled my sons, and . taken no thought to my own old age. She resented my dependence on Tom. I didn't like her because she was giddy, overdressed or under- vital and deeply in love, I learned to smile and say, 'One of you is the most wrong, in my opinion.' But wild horses won't drag out of me which it is.' They used to laugh, at that, and a laugh is death to a quarrel. After I'd been two months in the house, Cathy came over wholeheartedly; she does everything every-thing that way. She said she had said awful things about having me there, and I cried and said I had called her flighty and vain. We both cried. "We settled everything in those few minutes, and I had a daughter. A month ago a happy man came home to tell me and the boys there was a baby girl in the family; another an-other Margery." Cathy and I are still as different as two women could be, but in spite of that, or perhaps because of it, this is the house of complete harmony. har-mony. On Sunday nights we all have dinner together; other nights tVio Vinvo anH T ard ont r Vtaira tha dressed, a winner of dancing and bathing beauty contests, and because be-cause she told me, just before the marriage, that if she didn't go on loving Tom she would leave him. Bewilderment and Tears "My funds melted away, and increasing in-creasing deafness and weak eyes made it impossible for me to obtain ob-tain work. Miserable months of lodging and scrimping followed, then I had to give in, and go live with a daughter-in-law who didn't food we three like somewhat early. But there's no fixed rule. Cathy goes out as much as she must, or likes to, which isn't much. I have my crowd in every Thursday for tea and cookies and gossip, and she respects my one hospitality and often joins us. "We're not perfect. I think little Dunk ought to be spanked; she says, horrors, no, that'll give him fixations or neuroses or Inhibitions or confused ideologies or something.. some-thing.. Dunk escapes, but not without with-out certain enlightenment as to his crime and to his luck. I am a happy, hap-py, useful, needed and yes, I dare add deeply loved old woman. Can any old woman say more? And for some of this I thank you." ". . . bathing beauty contests . . ." want me, and ask a burdened son for every penny I spent. I don't excuse myself for letting things come to this pass; thousands of women are doing now just what I did when times were easy and a good man protected me. Like many another, I paid in lonesome bewilderment, bewil-derment, and tears. "Well, I wrote you then, Mrs. Norris, because I knew you had written with sympathy for both sides of this everyday problem, and to my surprise you answered me. I read your letter to rags, and then I made my plan. I disposed of every 'old-lady' gimcrack I could possibly spare, mental as' well as actual, and the first encouraging word Cathy said in a rather chilly, resigned hour of reception was a pleased, 'Is this all you brought?' "I determined to see nothing in her but what was good. There was a fat boy baby then, and another on the way; Cathy needed help, and although she would have said then that my help was the last she wanted, I proved she was wrong. You told me to keep my mouth shut, and God knows I say this in all reverence, for He helped me I did. You said to remember that he who would be first among us must be as our servant, and I was. I quietly washed dishes, didies, carried laundry upstairs, answered an-swered the telephone, answered the door. Giving Robin his dinner of cereal and stewed fruit, I added tea, and had mine. When Tom came home. Ma bad her dinner and was upsta:rs, with the baby. Saved Baby's Life "Duncan was born, and if Qithy had needed me before, she needed me twice as much then. He was delicate. I took him up to the third floor with me, and they say I saved his life. I aired him on the roof "ireh. and cooked his meals on a alcohol stove, j : Cathy and Tom had a dis-j dis-j j. and thy did, being voung and |