Mother-in-law

Posted on by Felipe Zapata

inlaw

MEET MY mother-in-law.

She was beautiful. I never knew her because she died at age 31 in childbirth with her fifth baby.

The baby was being delivered by my father-in-law whom I also never met because he died in 1986 at the age of 61. Heart attack.

He was a doctor.

This is a detail from a larger photo. I cropped and had it made computer-worthy. She would have been about 80 now.

The family never fully recovered from her death, and I imagine my father-in-law felt guilty the rest of his days.

The resemblance between my mother-in-law and my child bride, her third delivery, is quite remarkable.

Daughter didn’t fall far from that avocado tree.

21 thoughts on “Mother-in-law”

  1. As soon as I saw the photo, I thought of the resemblance. Strange how some families have that distinctive look. I come from a mongrel group. If we were all lined up, no one would ever guess we were related. Then, I have an older brother from a different mother, and he is like an identical twin of my father, his laugh, speech patterns, movements, everything. He was 3 when my father left, and didn’t see him again until he was in his late 30s, and that was only once. It baffles all of us.

    Luckily for the Zapata clan, the gene pool was strong.

    Like

  4. Plenty of pictures on the Moon…
    If I am ever in your area I go straight to the ceviche stand you always brag about.

    Like

      1. After a few times of being discouraged when I ordered, I realized what Mexico calls shrimp cocktail is similar to the ceviche I am used to and love in Ecuador.

        Like

        1. Andean: Ah, did not know that. National differences.

          In my mind, ceviche contains, among other things, raw fish supposedly “cooked” by the lemon juice or something like that. The only thing I eat raw are veggies and fruits, nothing that ever lived and breathed. It smacks of cannibalism.

          The shrimp cocktails on our little plaza contain boiled shrimp.

          Like

          1. Fish can be steamed or raw, and cooked by lemon/lime juice. How the sauce/juice is made is what makes the difference, for me at least. Some is drier than others. I have my favorites in the Barra area … Don’t bother to ask Estive. He doesn’t like fish.

            Like

                1. Andean: Quite the contrary. The Donald’s election victory has pasted a broad smile across my mug since early yesterday morning. I feel like a billion bucks.

                  But that’s quite apart from my astute observation that Estive’s not liking fish — or chocolate either, if memory serves — means he needs therapeutic intervention of some sort. But he won’t get it. I know. He’s funny that way.

                  Like

              2. Estive gives therapy to others. But never accompanied with fish. By the way, you would be pleased with my diet these days. Well, most of it. I have been advised to eat a lot of fatty meat. I generally don’t. But it leaves some options I like. Lots of meats, vegetables, a minimum of fruit, almost no carbohydrates. But it is the exercise that is doing the most good. Now that I have resolved the blister issue — I hope.

                Like

Comments are closed.