A mother by any other name

Cheryl and Beth have a unique mother-daughter relationship. At any given time, any one of these labels may seem appropriate for Cheryl’s relationship with Beth: friend, rival, taskmaster, pseudo-sibling, mentor, nurse, maid, and cook. Of all these titles, the most surprising one was added yesterday afternoon, secretary. I would have sooner expected Beth to be doing aerial acrobatics from the arm of the living room couch than what I saw yesterday: Beth dictating a letter to Cheryl.

You just haven’t lived until you’ve heard your six year old daughter dictating an email message for her aunt to her mother, like some kind of corporate executive: “, ‘feeling much much better’ PERIOD – NEW SENTENCE – ‘I’m having a lot of ,'”