My San Antonio tía was not a matriarch in the usual sense. She didn’t leave children and grandchildren to add to the breadth of the family tree. Her gift was longevity, her mental resilience.
How she stays in the moment when she spends time with her granddaughter.
Emily and Kelly are my DILs. I’m their MIL. I have two daughters-in-law, two sons, and four grandchildren. Until recently I didn’t use the shortcut DILs; I learned this from the young.
“When my tía Adelaide arrived from Texas on a banana boat, we were a small community of about 500 people, our Jewish identity in Panama held together by matriarchs.”
