The car screeched to a halt. Alex was a serious young man, so the impulse to offer a lift to a stranger, a young woman signaling for a ride by the roadside, was entirely out of character for him.
The countryside village where Alex and his mother had a cozy, warm house was about 10 miles outside of town. Living there in the summer was sheer pleasure. Alex always left for work around 7 AM, when the roads were still quite empty and the forest around them inspired pleasant thoughts and memories.
The young woman ran up to the car and, smiling, peered through the open window.
“Hello there,” she sang out cheerfully. “Could you give me a lift to town?”
“Aren’t you afraid of getting into a stranger’s car in the middle of the woods?” Alex asked with an involuntary grin.
“What’s there to be afraid of?” the woman replied. “You’ve got a fancy car and kind eyes. Why would you do anything awful with a car like that and eyes like yours?”
Alex burst into laughter. He hadn’t encountered such naivety and simplicity in a long time and was frankly convinced that they were almost extinct.
Raised in a small village, Daisy was open and trusting. When Alex proposed to her three weeks after they met, she accepted without hesitation. He seemed so solid and handsome to her. “Just like Aunt Megan predicted,” Daisy thought quietly to herself, tightly holding Alex’s hand and cautiously watching his mother, for whom the news of the upcoming nuptials was something of a mild earthquake.
After the wedding, Daisy and Alex moved into his city apartment. Living at the countryside house was not entirely convenient, and Alex’s mother didn’t particularly warm to her daughter-in-law.
“I’m amazed, son,” Jane often said to Alex when he visited, “Was this village beauty the only suitable choice in your entire social circle?” she would sigh and shake her head, her hair elegantly arranged.
Alex would smile but never argued with his mother. He didn’t want to explain how content and comfortable he felt in his little, cozy family. Alex’s mother was a lady of cooler temperament and restraint. For Alex, the open-hearted and affectionate Daisy was both motherly and wifely.
Years went by. Daisy and Alex had a lovely daughter named Emma. Daisy adored her, and even the grandmother slowly began to thaw. She saw how Daisy cherished her son and wisely raised their daughter. While Jane was a stern and somewhat cynical woman, she knew how to admit her mistakes.
So Alex wasn’t entirely surprised when one fine day, Jane softened her demeanor and invited Daisy and her granddaughter to stay at the countryside house for a few days.
“Alex, I’m afraid of her,” Daisy whined, trying to find any excuse not to visit her mother-in-law.
“She won’t eat you,” Alex laughed, tenderly kissing his wife’s neck.
“She will, she will,” Daisy moaned, “and she’ll have Emma for dessert. Then you’ll be left lamenting and crying too late.” Daisy convincingly finished her point with a small tear.
But nothing would do. Alex took the basket of food from his wife, loaded cheerful, blue-eyed Emma, situated his reluctant wife in the front seat, and the family set off, chatting and bickering as they went.
Jane was genuinely glad to see them. She smiled at Daisy, and the young woman understood that the war was over. From that moment, their amazing friendship began. Every day, the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law grew closer and more trusting.
Daisy returned to work, and Emma often stayed with Jane, who read her stories, taught her piano, and helped her with English. Jane was a simultaneous translator, and inquisitive Emma delighted in her entertaining tales of travels abroad and encounters with fascinating people.
A few more years passed. One day, Daisy and Emma arrived at Jane’s unexpectedly. Daisy was thinner and strangely tense and withdrawn.
“Daisy, what’s happened?” Jane asked with concern. “Are you feeling unwell?”
But Daisy sighed, sat down, and began to cry bitterly.
“Alex has not been living with us for half a year now,” Daisy managed through tears. “He used to just not come home sometimes, saying work kept him late. But then he started disappearing for days. He’d return, change clothes, kiss Emma, push me aside, and leave again. At first, I thought he was having trouble at work. We haven’t seen any money for nearly a year. But that’s okay. I earn a good wage as a nurse.
“We get by. Then one day, there was a knock at the door. I opened it, and there stood a woman. Very elegant, in a hat. With a handbag I only ever saw on TV,” Daisy calmed a bit, took a breath, and continued, “She called me a beggar and said I wasn’t a match for Alex. She said he would live with her now, and I should pack up and take my silly daughter away. She and Alex would have plenty to do without my ill-mannered child.”
“I’m not silly and very well-mannered,” Emma suddenly declared, turning away in a huff. Jane and Daisy hadn’t heard her quietly slip into the kitchen where she’d been listening for several minutes.
“Of course, you’re not silly,” Jane affirmed, sitting up straight. “You’re a clever and polite girl. That’s why you and your mum and I will live together from now on.”
Daisy wiped a tear and looked at Jane in surprise.
But the iron lady had made her decision. When her son later informed her that he was getting a divorce and hoped she’d soon change her will regarding the house, she took it with calm dignity. The will had already been changed.
Jane just forgot to mention to Alex that the new owners of the house were his ex-wife and blue-eyed Emma, who was at that moment cheerfully tugging, as always, on her grandmother’s beautifully styled, beloved hair.
