I worry about my mother, sitting there with her arm around that guy with the bad smile and the watery eyes. I think of her at my age, married to the wrong man and with my little brother already on the way while I grabfisted at her curls -

when did her smile stop being a happy smile and change into a plea for help? And what is this guy going to do for it.

Now don't get me wrong, I want her to be happy, have rarely wanted something as much. But it scares me, after a string of guys that were sore sore losers, the first guy that isn't half bad

she is sighing all day long and forgetting where things are
talking about him endlessly and saying everything but the words "I love him" -

At my age she was a baby with babies; at my age she threw the romance out the window to keep her hands free for diapers and an inattentive husband; at my age she stopped learning about the outside world, and hid inside a dream house full of skeletons.

Who is this person that she is letting in? Does she know what to do with him? Does she really love him after three weeks, or is he just the first guy in twenty years that has paid her any attention?

...so I worry.

At least he seems nice.