I don't know where to start, but maybe it'll be easier on my chest if I tell you everything. I'm Lyndsey, 27 years old, a medical technologist, and I grew up with only my mother in my life.
Since childhood, he has guided me in everything—he was my father and mother, he sold at the market so I could pay for my tuition, he refused to remarry so he could give everything to me. Because of that, I learned to work hard, graduated from college, and now work in a hospital. He is still the one I take home every night, he is still the one I look up to when I am resting.
But now, there's something I really want to do—get married. I love my boyfriend. We've been in a relationship for a few years now. He's a good person, and he accepts everything I have—including my mom. We're planning to get married, but… my mom doesn't want to.
He doesn't say it directly, but I can feel it. When we talk about marriage, his eyes turn sad. When the neighbors tease him about being a mother-in-law, he smiles but you can see it's hard. Until one night, while we were washing dishes together, he suddenly spoke.
“When you get married, who will take care of me?” he asked, while wiping the glass. I just kept quiet. I stopped scrubbing the plate. I didn't know how to answer.
“I'm not saying you shouldn't get married,” he continued. “But what about me?”
The question is very heavy. And it feels even heavier that love is a prison. I love my mother, but I also love my dream of having a family of my own.
The next day, I worked up the courage to talk to him in the living room. I sat next to him while he was watching TV. I held his hand, which was cold and trembling.
“Mom, I will never leave you. Even if I get married, you will still be my mother. You will still be the one I will come home to. We can live together in the same house. I also want you to be a grandmother… I want you to experience carrying my future child.”
She burst into tears. She didn't say anything right away. She just hugged me, tightly. She didn't fully agree yet, but I could feel her slowly understanding.
