My mother never liked my wife. She thought she was too outspoken, too independent, and not the kind of woman who belonged in our family. They stayed polite, but there was always tension between them.
This year, my wife began chemotherapy and lost her hair. Wanting her to know she wasn’t facing it alone, I shaved my head too. It felt like a small way to stand beside her during the hardest time of her life.
When my mother heard about it, she was angry. She called it dramatic and said the situation wasn’t about me. We argued, and eventually stopped speaking for a while.
