“All right — you better ask quickly!” I agreed, hung up, and exhaled a long, heavy breath. Back at home, Robert saw I wasn’t happy and went straight to the kitchen to start cooking.
I sat on the sofa and got angrier the more I thought about it. Robert and I both worked; Lily was our only child. We paid for her through college and even handled the wedding. She and David had been classmates and had been together for a little over five years. They didn’t ask for any formal wedding gifts from our side, and instead we gave them a generous dowry/wedding support because we knew the groom’s family wasn’t wealthy.
Two years after marriage Lily became pregnant. David’s family came from a small Midwest town; they said his parents were worried about the chickens, ducks, pigs — so they asked me to take care of Lily during her confinement. I went and stayed for three years. I covered grocery expenses and other costs until our granddaughter Emily turned three and started preschool.
Lily and I discussed it — she said she could pick Emily up after work so Robert and I could return to our hometown. And that’s how all this started.
To be honest, at first I didn’t approve of the marriage. We weren’t rich, but when Lily graduated we arranged a car and a place for her. I hoped she’d find someone with similar prospects, but she wanted David and that was that. With Robert’s persuasion I reluctantly agreed. We used years of savings to buy them a place in Los Angeles. Robert pulled strings with an old comrade to help David get a job at the Public Utility Department.
After I retired I ran a little neighborhood bookstore that did well. When Lily was far along in her pregnancy she called me, crying that David wanted to keep working and she’d be alone without a hot meal. So Robert and I closed the shop and went to care for her. Near her due date she had leg cramps in the middle of the night and screamed in pain. David complained about the noise and moved into the kids’ room the next day. I slept beside her and rubbed her legs all night.
I had cared for her for twenty-eight years, thinking she finally understood filial piety — and she slipped me twenty thousand. Then her husband pointed at my nose and accused me of sucking my daughter dry! Twenty thousand — it barely makes a dent in what I’ve subsidized them with! Outrageous.
I was so angry I couldn’t sleep. The next morning at 6:30 a.m. Lily called in a trembling voice.
“Mom, David was wrong to insult you, but I also didn’t think things through. David is just trying to think of our small family — our incomes aren’t high, and Emily is in preschool…”
“So could you please understand and return the $20,000? Calm David down? Do it for me?”
My chest hurt with anger; I felt like I’d given birth to a piece of char siu. I said nothing and hung up.
I went to exercise in the complex, skipped breakfast, grabbed my bag, and headed to the bank. I had a checking card that Lily kept for me; my monthly pension is deposited there. During Lily’s late pregnancy she wasn’t working and told me her days were hard. I felt for her and handed over my pension card to help her through. She never returned it, and I never asked. After all, Robert and I live simply and his pension is just enough. So now they were spending my money and wanted me to give back the $20,000 they’d handed me.
