Grandma Jessie
I love my mother-in-law. It may not be normal for a daughter-in-law to say that, but my mother-in-law is fantastic. I would be remiss to talk about my family without talking about Dwayne's mother. She was the first person to say aloud that Dwayne and I were a destined couple.
Grandma Jessie is warm and inviting, at least the woman I know.
Dwayne loves his mother, as well, but says I know the older, mellow version of her.
Jessie is always dying her hair blonde and staying too long in tanning beds. Her son tells her staying in tanning beds as long as she does can't be good for her. She doesn't listen. Jessie has been through enough that she's entitled to do as she pleases, in her words. She uses more colorful language to say this.
Talking to her granddaughters, she says,
"I know how you all feel. Aubrey, I'm the oldest daughter like you. Parker, I looked like you when I was your age. Quintuplets, I was one of 15 children. I was nothing if not lost in a crowd. When I was a big little baby, grandgirlies, my parents watched me with concern and said, 'Kind of strange and slow, isn't she?' My sister Jill was born less than a year later, and my parents said, 'HOLY CRAP, THIS ONE IS SO MUCH HEALTHIER!' and threw me outside."
The ending of that story never happened. It might as well have, in Jessie's mind. I can see why.
Jessie did indeed have a hard life. She didn't graduate 8th grade, due to undiagnosed dyslexia and a severe stigma against left-handed people that existed at the time. She was a homeless teenager, because her parents kicked her out of the family home and said they weren't going to waste resources on her. Soon she was a pregnant homeless teenager. Dwayne was her firstborn. She'd go on to have eight other sons before finally having a daughter in midlife.
But getting back to teenage Jessie, Dwayne's early childhood was spent on the streets. The streets really were full of wild animals. Any given day, something could have bitten and prematurely ended the lives of either or both. Dwayne was a defensive small child.
By the middle of Dwayne's elementary school years, Jessie was no longer homeless. She told her son that he was brilliant and that he was her ticket out of poverty. She wasn't wrong, but there was too much pressure on Dwayne because of the extent Jessie insisted he get serious and provide for her. She also told him he was the next Albert Einstein. He wasn't the next Albert Einstein, but he is resourceful and talented.
When she met me, she said we would make the next Albert Einstein. We didn't. She says not yet.
Jessie no longer heavily implies that her son should provide for her. This is because she manages a successful restaurant, a country buffet. She treats me like a daughter. I'm her favorite daughter-in-law because I'm the one who cooks and organizes family reunions. It's nice to be appreciated.
This woman is the Paulette Bonafonté to my Elle Woods. We listened to the Legally Blonde musical soundtrack together when my hair was still growing back out. The song Ireland is her song for me.