I showed her my notebook.
She slowly turned the pages.
When she reached a drawing of a little girl standing in front of a mirror, her hands began to tremble.
Beneath the drawing were the words:
“I want to look at myself someday without crying.”
My mother-in-law stared at that sentencefor a long time.
Then she suddenly whispered:
“Emily, I was that kind of girl too.”
I looked at her in astonishment.
It turned out that she had also been overweight when she was young.
Her own mother had frequently mocked her.
She had spent her entire youth following strict diets and trying to fit other people’s ideas of beauty.
“
I’m sixty-six years old,” she whispered, “and to this day, I still won’t go to the beach because I’m ashamed of my legs.”
When I heard those words, I embracedher.
We both cried.
From that day forward, our relationship changed.
