Show Kath kathleen leea norris says the problem of mama lae atu btu syndicate features feature ivar 00 al S ki RYAN evelyn did what I 1 advised her to do and that was marry ot at once and let mama adjust hersell herself to what is a perfectly natural and normal step on the part 0 h ter by KATHLEEN NORRIS VELYN MILLER wants E EVELYN to marry her soldier she wants to go down to new mexico and find some sort of a small home and start her own life as a happy wife but theres mama standing like a grumbling S sick ick dangerous old lioness right in evelyns path both my brothers married young writes evelyn who is now 29 1 I 1 was 19 when papa died and had aus just t got my first teaching position now I 1 am principal of an elementary school and have always liked my work my hours are such that I 1 can take mama her breakfast in bed and get home early enough to get our dinner it has meant steady work but she has always helped me with my papers and bookkeeping and we have had ten wonderful years y ears together I 1 dearly love my mo mother ther I 1 appreciate an all she has done tor for me and I 1 know I 1 am the very apple ol of lle her i r eyes she does doe not care for or my brothers wives and rarely sees her three grandchildren sometimes I 1 go over and set see them on sunday evening there Is no ill feeling between them and mama and the boys do come in and see her now and then but we are not intimate with their wives mother loves few but deeply mama says she loves few ew persons but loves those few too much and I 1 believe it is true it means that she depends for her happiness almost entirely upon me old friends do drop in to see her but she and her own sister are not particularly a attached and nd while aunt emily wa would uld gladly come here to live it if I 1 were gone the mere prospect of it breaks mamas heart well this is where alan comes tn in my splendid wonderful lover love loverde rHe he Is already a captain though a year younger than I 1 before the war he was a college instructor just the work with which I 1 could perhaps help him and the atmosphere I 1 would love ours has been a whirlwind courtship I 1 met him exactly seven weeks ago but it does seem late fate to us bothi both alan is truly the fan mac 0 of f my dreams and I 1 had a very definite dream of the man I 1 wanted and he says that all his life long he has been waiting for me marna mama cant and that I 1 know him well enough to care lor for him and to be willing to share my we life with him she has been actually ill since the affair began and has spoken to alan only twice the first time she was very cold and stiff the second time yesterday she wept clung to his hands and begged him not to take me away from her she said I 1 am all she has alan says shell get over it and come to live with us when the war its over but I 1 am afraid it may eikill kill her there is nothing really wrong with her physically but she i is 1 very trail has headaches and Is easily tired alan Is willing to have aher her join us in new mexico but she its its afraid of wartime condit conditions lorts so anear pear a big camp it seems a deadlock marna mama has a small income ck b but she he could not pay tor for a nurse or r a maid under present conditions it t would actually shatter her to have me marry but do you think she would recover do you think it would be sate safe to risk it I 1 am ara determined to do what you advise but do please remember that utter happiness or ater utter misery for ane me la is at stake and give me some hope of being wile wife even a year from now eyen after the war if you possibly can he will wait married and no regrets this letter came to me two weeks ago go from philadelphia I 1 answered it within the hour by bv bedr mall mail today I 1 have a tc on ry my desk CHILDREN DONT OWE PARENTS A LIVING children more than pay their parents in babyhood fo for any expense incurred in raising ratsmy them according to kathleen norris it is not fair for a mother to stand in her daughters way when a desirable marriage is in the offing young people are entitled to a life of their own unfettered by the prejudices and notions of their in laws how a young y 0 ung sc school hool teacher f faced aced just such a problem and solved it with the th e help h elp of miss aliss norris is related this week married this morning mama fine love from alan and evelyn so evelyn did what I 1 advised her to do and that was marry at once and let mama adjust herself to what Is a perfectly natural and normal step on the part of any daughter it if some of these daughters who sacrifice their entire lives to selfish mamas could look back a generation and see exactly how much consideration mama gave in her turn to the demands needs and opinions of her own parents they might receive a startling eye opener mama was probably selfish as a girl and as a wife or she be quite so blind now to all interests but h her er own mama has alienated sons daughters d in law grandchildren and har her own sister through her narrow pigheaded pig headed selfishness she has absorbed evelyns life and undoubtedly she would go on contentedly making more and more narrow the circle that shuts in evelyn draining away evelyns youth and hope and eagerness for life as marciles mer mercilessly ciles a as the hideous old duchess of ill the middle ages who bathed in the blood of murdered village girls we se ses sea s too many of these selfish old women being escorted tenderly about by starved maiden ladles ladies of daughters patient daughters who place shawls laugh at old old jokes tudy study 6 bills ot of tare fare concernedly explain to the waiter how mama likes her chop or her baked apple one wonders what is going on in the old ladys head as she cackles her feeble stories and explains that while she he had just piles and piles of beaus in the old days evelyn has always been mamas girl grandmother given separate home A san francisco matron some ten years ago transplanted her mother abruptly to a two room apartment in a pleasant sunny house with a garden a few blocks away from her own home she did it suddenly between breakfast and lunch her husband and children came home unexpectedly to a house in which h grandma was no longer supreme criticizing delaying complaining the chinese cook crazy appropriating the bathroom to herself at the very hours when the man of the house bouse and the children were getting ready for bor work and school or jutt just home from work and school 1 I telephoned my sister and rny my brother announced the wife and mother both pay 25 a month mas rent Is 15 well manage the tee rest for four years ive been wondering what to do and now ive done it ive been b sea fraid afraid a to I 1 c open the subject but this thia time I 1 argue I 1 a asked aked helen to take ma for a long ride fide and while she was gone cone I 1 took her things over to the byron street house helen brought her there everything was in order gas plate groceries teapot telephone I 1 said heres where youre going to be ma and kissed her and we came away this particular mother speak to any child of hers tor for weeks but she accepted their money and after awhile she accepted the situation and now a all H Is i serenity and peace |