Yesterday I called Jackson on my lunch break to say hi and when he picks up his voice is hurried, excited, and twinging with anger. I ask him what’s up and he proceeds to tell me about the lengthy tirade of hatred filled email response he received from his mom. Littered throughout the email are snide sideways stomach-jabs about how we've (Jackson and myself) hurt the family by running off and getting married without inviting any of them to the ceremony (kind of a hard thing to do when they slam a door in your face) and how we've embarrassed her with our actions but she's somehow managed to pick up the pieces and move on with her life. She finally wraps up the email by saying she'll send Jackson his car title but that she knows that truly the only reason Jackson would want the title in his name is because he wants to sale the car for money.
When I heard him tell me that almost every single cell in my body wanted to stand up and rip her bleep bleep head off her bleep bleep body! Here is this woman, accusing the man I love of as being a swindler, a cheat, and a liar. Here is this woman that has the nerves to call herself a mother, his mother. My temper was soon suppressed when I listened to the sadness overcoming Jackson's voice as he talked about how happy he was to soon be moving on from his family and even though he said those things, I knew his heart was breaking inside deep down inside and there was nothing I could do at the other end of the telephone line. In a million years I never thought we'd be going through this as I once sat on his parent's couch however many months ago. It’s like one day we were all a family, laughing together, hugging, and even sharing life stories in the sitting room, but then in a blink of a second I was the enemy and Jackson was told to choose between the family and his relationship with me. I can say to this day he's never actually chosen between either of us because he was never given an option and that's a great thing. Technically you could argue that he chose me since we're married now and he doesn't communicate with them much anymore but he never truly had to choose, Jackson says he knew from the beginning when all the feathers started to get ruffled the people that truly loved him would be standing by him at the end off all the arguing and that turned out to be me. People that love you don't impose those kinds of horrible demands upon you and they love you and support you unconditionally whatever life decisions you make. Throughout all the hurting words, the unrelenting wedding obstacles they threw at us, and bad wishes I've never told Jackson that he should throw his family out of his life because I knew it was never my place as a friend, a lover, or wife, to ask for such a sacrifice. I love him too much to do that. So here’s to you mother in-law, thank you for pushing the man that I love further into my arms, thank you for all the coming years of happiness with the future father of my children, and thank you for giving me the opportunity to prove to myself that I'm a good person.
In closing all, this is what momma warned me about: "Learn something from everyday that you live because life presents new lessons always." She was right, and Jackson and I both have learned lifelong lessons thus far about love, loss, forgiveness, and restoring. The photo attached to this blog represents how Jackson and I will both feel once he gets that title in the mail and never has to deal with them again. Peace at last.
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