There are a zillion mother-in-law jokes out there, but I didn't have one. As the "other half" of someone, people in a relationship often feel like their partner's parents are keeping an eye on them while pretending to ignore bloodlines. I never felt that way with Mom, who treated me as if I were part of a family partnership, and with a lot of love. But Lucile is not is sight; we lost her in 2007.
I saved a phone message from her that's nearly ten years old now. At the time, we only had basic cable, so there was a particular TV show that Gina's daughter Ina watched when she was visiting her grandma because we didn't have access to it at our house. When we couldn't get to Mom's home, she would put the program on and
give Ina a report about what happened.
The phone message I have from Lucile is telling Ina that the show wasn't on. "Batman" was showing instead, "and I'm not going to watch 'Batman.' Goodbye." Her tone of
voice was made for a sit-com, and I liked it so much that for several years, I played it on my annual Halloween radio show right before I did whatever version of the "Batman" theme I was airing that year.
But the gag no longer makes it to the airwaves. Sometimes, her memory just isn't good enough; we all miss my mom-in-law Lucile.