A Wonderful Life

Her name was Joanne, “but call me Joannie” is what she would always say to people. She had a wonderful life, and she would be the first one to tell you that.

“Robert’s very successful,” she would gloat, “so successful that I don’t have to work if I don’t want to. Oh, I’m not a housewife, at least not like those women that sit at home all day and watch ‘Oprah.’ No, I prefer the news; keeps me up to date and all that.” Then she would go silent for awhile and not say anything to anyone. She seemed to act that way a lot.

She was the prom queen in high school. Well, the runner-up actually, but Jenny McCaffrey had her period that week and wasn’t up to the task of riding on the float, so by default she was the prom queen. And she never let you forget that either.

“My older daughter Vicky is just like I was when I was her age, so beautiful and special. She says I’m her most special friend,” she would say with a radiant look on her face. “I’m very proud of her.”

What Joannie won’t say is that her fourteen year old daughter doesn’t want to be seen anywhere in public with her mother or that she throws royal fits whenever she doesn’t get her way. At first, the rants didn’t work, and Joannie took them with a grain of salt, but then she started to get really bad headaches. When the headaches became migraines, she started giving in a lot easier to her…