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The other side of the family

I mentioned that it took my parents a little while to get used to the idea of me and JW. His family, on the other hand, welcomed me with open arms. His high school girlfriend had been a picky vegetarian, and when his mom asked me what I ate and I said, "Everything," I thought she would weep. I was in. I was nervous about meeting his grandparents, who live in a tiny town in upstate New York and probably hadn't seen a minority in years, but his grandfather ignored my race and spent the entire time teasing me about my height.

JW's mom taught world history to high school kids and liked to ask me about India and Hinduism. While we were planning the wedding, my parents joked that you could tell her about anything, "It's our custom," and she would immediately accept it. JW's family was curious, too. One of his cousins said, "You're Indian, right? Can you tell me about the clown knife fish?" I made something up, but to this day I have no idea what he was talking about.

Our parents met, officially, when both sets were waiting to pick up me and JW at the airport on one of our trips home from California. Our plane was delayed and by the time we got there, our mothers had bonded. They still talk on the phone often and see each other without us when they're in each other's towns. I think that went a long way toward reassuring my parents that they weren't going to lose me to people they had nothing in common with.

Full post as published by Magic Cookie on May 18, 2008 (boomark / email).