More food for thought, Mq:
guardian.co.uk
>>Ben is reading Harry Potter to his grandmother, Eliza. He reads slowly and loudly, pausing between sentences and holding the pictures up to the light so the illustrations can be seen more clearly. His hesitancy has nothing to do with his eyes or his reading skills - Ben is 10 and, his mother proudly claims, unusually bright for his age, but his grandmother is almost 90; she has problems with her hearing, her sight and her concentration. Maria, Ben's mother, watches, affection mixed with mild exasperation. 'I'm relieved mum got a chance to see her grandson grow up,' she says. 'I didn't expect her to; she was old when I was young, and she's really barely aware of what's going on now.' Eliza, a talented and determined photographer in her youth, is a rare example of an early twentieth-century woman who was prepared to put her family on hold for the sake of her career. She was 42 when Maria was born and her daughter harbors simmering resentment that she is still paying the price for her mother's ambition. 'My family life made me a complete freak at school, but that wasn't the point,' said Maria. 'I love my mother but I've never been that close to her intellectually or emotionally because we never had that period where we could interact as equals: she was an old woman by the time I was even halfway cognizant and by the time I was an adult, I was a full-time carer to this woman who had trouble remembering who I was.'<<
Delightful, eh? But you go right ahead, Mq. |
