I only felt the weight on my shoulders suddenly lighten, and from that day on, my son and I had only each other.
I poured all my love and energy into raising him, taking on extra tutoring in addition to teaching to support his education.
From a young age, Nicholas was bright and decisive, but also had a quick temper, perhaps a trait inherited from his father.
Whenever I saw him frown and shout, an invisible fear would creep into my heart.
I tried to use all of a mother’s tenderness to correct and guide him, hoping to smooth out the sharp edges of his personality.
In the end, Nicholas did not disappoint me, graduating with honors and quickly finding a good job in a major city, eventually getting promoted to regional manager for a well known corporation.
He married a wife, a gentle and kind girl named Hazel.
At last, the heavy burden on my shoulders was lifted, and I thought that from then on I would live a comfortable, carefree life, tending to my rose bushes in the morning and taking walks with the other older ladies in town in the evening.
But life rarely goes as planned.
That day, I was busy in my garden when the phone rang, and it was Nicholas.
“Hey, Mom, what are you doing right now?”
His voice on the phone, even in a simple greeting, always carried a subtle sense of pressure.
I wiped my dirt stained hands on my apron and chuckled softly.
“I am just checking on the roses, and they are almost ready to be pruned, so is something wrong, son?”
“Mom, Hazel and I have talked it over, and I want you to get your things in order because this weekend, I am driving down to pick you up and bring you to the city to live with us.”
I froze, and the thought of leaving this place, of leaving the quiet life I knew so well, made my heart sink.
“Oh, let us not do that, son, because I am used to living here and I do not know anyone in the city, so I would not be comfortable and I would just be a bother to you and your wife.”
“What bother are you talking about, Mom?”
Nicholas’s tone held a hint of impatience.
