My step-mother must be the biggest nag I have ever met in my entire life. She nags me, she nags my father and I'm sure that she probably nags my little brother and all her friends as well. You know what though? I absolutely love it!
Ever since my last hospital stay (I've really got to stop mentioning that), she has been phoning me almost religiously on a Sunday night. During each and every phone call she manages to nag me about something. She nags me about smoking too much, that I should be getting more exercise and that when I feel low I should get off my butt and do something to take my mind off things. Now that is incredibly sound advice but now that I am getting used to hearing it every week, I groan secretly to myself every time the phone rings on a Sunday night. She really doesn't get the whole self-destructive thing. By the end of the phone call however, I am back to thinking that she is such an incredible woman.
A bit of history ... My step-mother and my father married back in 1986. I was sixteen at the time. By that stage I had already left school, was working and no longer saw my father every weekend like I did after he and my mother divorced and I was younger. Consequently I don't think I actually visited her and my father all that often. Looking back now, I have absolutely no idea why. I guess it was just one of those things.
When I was admitted into hospital last time, my friend (*C*) contacted my father and step-mother and let them know what was going on in my life. Prior to *C*'s phone call they really had no idea of my depression and stuff because, well, Hubby and I just hadn't told them. At that stage, we only exchanged Christmas and birthday cards and perhaps spoke on the telephone a couple of times a year.
Because of *C*'s contact with my father and step-mother, I found out that my father was shattered after the divorce from my mother. My father did not tell *C* exactly why this was the case. All that he would tell her was that it took him several years after the divorce to "get over" whatever had happened. I haven't been game to ask him more about it yet, although hopefully one day I will gain enough courage to ask him what exactly my mother's and his marriage was like.
Anyway, I have digressed a little from the point of this post. From that point on, my family and I have been keeping in regular contact. I've discovered how special a person my step-mother is. I have no doubt that she is the reason my father is a much happier person. She must also be a wonderful mother because my little brother is just a magic young man.
I can't help but wish that she had been my mother or that she had met my father early enough so that I could have grown up with her. Just think. I could have actually turned out to be a sane, normal person. Imagine that!
*Clears throat for oncoming song*
and 
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