The slippers

[fbhjr]

I’m told that somewhere in the past my wife has written up her version of this. So, I apologize if you’ve heard this before. But, I’ve got pictures...

My mother and her mother never approved of my wife or her family. The reasons are long, complicated and don’t make a lot of sense.

I had hoped that when we got married in 93 it would be the end of it. To some extent it was as my grandmother died two months later and never said another word on the subject.

My mother asked what my wife might like for Christmas. She told her a curio cabinet. (In my mother’s way she gave us money and we bought it.)
It was very nice.


My wife’s birthday is just after Christmas. When we saw my parents just before Christmas my mother asked me what she’d like for her birthday.
“Would she like slippers?” she asked me.
“Sure,” I said, thinking that would be safe.
“I want to give her something for her, not the apartment,” my mother said. “The Christmas thing is for where you live. I want this to be for her.”
“Slippers would be fine,” I said.

At Christmas, my mother handed over a give bag for my wife with instructions not top open it before her birthday.


My wife’s birthday arrived. I brought her my presents when she was still in bed. After opening them she asked if there was anything else.
“There’s that bag from my mother,” I said.
“OK,” she said. “I’ll open that.”

She picked up the bag, opened it and tilted it out onto the bed.


“These are little old lady slippers,” my wife said. “Does your mother think I’m a little old lady?”

One of the slippers had landed with the bottom up. I noticed the mark on the bottom.


“It gets worse,” I said, picking up the slipper. “My grandmother’s name is written on the bottom.”


We stared at them for a while.
“Maybe she bought them for her mother before she died,” I said. “Then, when her mother died, she wanted to keep them in the family.”
My wife put them back in the bag. I put the bag on the shelf in our closet where it remains 15 1/2 years later.

A week or so later I talked with my mother on the phone and it came up.
“Did she like the slippers?” my mother asked. “I never got a thank you note for them.”
“She was put off by your mother’s name being written on the bottom of them,” I said.
“Her name was on them?” my mother asked. “When that nurse gave them to your grandmother for her birthday, I didn’t know she put her name on them.”

My grandmother’s birthday was August 8th. She died almost exactly 4 months later.
So, she was given these slippers in August. Presumably wore them for 4 months then died.
My mother then took the slippers from her dead mother, put them in a gift bag and gave them to my wife for her birthday.

Comments

[temperlj.livejournal.com]

True Story

[capt-amos.livejournal.com]

**see icon.

[gypsykate1890.livejournal.com]

Wow...um...wow...

[pallid-regina.livejournal.com]

HOLY CRAP! Wow.

[ladyfreque.livejournal.com]

OK, that's a winner. Though of what category I don't know...

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

Well, back when I worked for the telecom company, it won me the "strangest mother in law" story for my department. (It was allowed even though it was my mother as it is a mother in law story.)
I got second prize too with my story of the dead cat in my mother in law's freezer.
Third prize went to my friend Jeff's mother in law with strange goulash...

[capt-amos.livejournal.com]

"I got second prize too with my story of the dead cat in my mother in law's freezer."

I officially request this story.
*sits quietly with hands in lap*

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

That one's not as good.



My coworker Jeff had gotten married about a month before me. He and Mike who worked in the next department over were trading mother in law stories trying to decide who had the strangest mother in law.
They looked at me and I told the slipper story.
“You win,” Jeff said.
“At least your mother in law doesn’t do anything strange,” Mike said.
“Well, she does have a dead cat in her freezer,” I said.
They looked at each other much as you describe yourself waiting.

“Her cat died. It’s winter. She wants to give it a good burial.”
They looked at each other, then back to me.
“I will say I’m not having dinner at her place until the ground thaws,” I said.
They nodded and went back to work.

Yikes

[evrgreen.livejournal.com]

this brings the whole "re-gifting" thing to an entirely different (And creepy) level !

I don't blame you guys a bit for rejecting them - but I also wouldn't have bothered taking up valuable closet space for 15 years!

[cissa.livejournal.com]

*blink*

My. That IS a story!

And, for the record- NOT deserving of a thank-you note, in my opinion, even though I generally favor such.

[palusbuteo.livejournal.com]

Palm-Forehead.

egads.

It may have been your grandmother never wore the slippers, just had her name on it...But I find that very unlikely, it doesn't match your description from other stories....

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

I have no proof she wore them.
I only visited her once in those 4 months, and she was in bed. So, her feet were covered.
When she was at our wedding, she was wearing shoes.

But, there is no reason to think she didn't wear them. And, my mother didn't say anything along the lines of "since she never used them". Since she didn't know my grandmother's name was on them, I get no impression she had paid a lot of attention to them before she took them.

[palusbuteo.livejournal.com]

Yup, but either case, it's still no excuse to just toss them in a bag and gift them to your wife. It's just plain icky.