My Mother-in-Law Left a Blue Notebook in Our Hallway Closet—After My Son Was Born, I Finally Learned What She Had Been Recording Inside It

When circumstances change, you decide again.

Ruth’s did.

Eleanor’s did not enough.

That is why their outcomes differed.

Not because one was my mother and one was Mark’s.

Family labels did not decide.

Behavior did.

Thomas once asked whether I hated Eleanor.