Happy Mother's Day

In lieu of something sappy and overly sentimental, I wanted to share something I recently read in the book Americans at War by Stephen Ambrose. It's funny that a sentiment from 1942 still has as much relevance today as it did then.

Edith and Victor Speert of Cleveland, Ohio, were married in June 1942, just before he went off to the army. She went to work. At the end of the war, before he returned from Europe, she wrote to warn him, "I'm not exactly the same girl you left - I'm twice as independent as I used to be and to top it off, I sometimes think I've become "hard as nails" - hardly anyone can evoke any sympathy from me. I've been living exactly as I want to and I do as I damn please. You are not married to a girl that's interested solely in a home - I shall definitely have to work all my life - I get emotional satisfaction out of working; I don't doubt that many a night you will cook the supper while I'm at a meeting. Also, dearest - I shall never wash and iron - there are laundries for that!