Some twenty odd years ago I boarded a flight for Cali Colombia. This was not just a trip of adventure like many I had taken in the recent past… it was a meeting. It was a meeting , as it turned out, of myself and future in law family. One particular member of this family was Marta, the traditional old maid who doddered about taking care of her sisters family and household chores. Marta, having never married, was a welcome fixture in a very traditional South American family atmosphere…..a sort of female equivalent to Uncle Charley on My Three Sons
But time lumbers on and eventually Marta, aging and frequently arguing with her older sister opted to leave the family environment and move into a nearby home for the aged. This is where Marta at long last met the love of her life and at the age of seventy nine got herself hitched in order to spend the rest of what was left in wedded bliss. Back at the traditional South American Family Atmosphere however, this went down like a stone filled tortilla. Not prone to accepting change easily…or well, Martas older sister…my Mother in law…did not take this huge change comfortably.
Marta has recently been re granted rights to visit the family home and she does daily though its with the understanding that “he” is not welcome. I often think of Marta and always with a bit of sorrow that her decisions were met with derision and unacceptance . But being much older than Marta its not likely my Mother in law will change her thoughts on this . And in her disgust she mouths those thoughts frequently…….
“ They only got married for the sex .”
