Mother son bond is tested when she remarried
I am Lucas, and I was two months from the end of my last year of high school when I lost my father in an accident. He had been a rock to me, giving me everything that I could ask for. After losing him, my whole world fell apart, though I was determined to stay strong for my mother. I love her more than a son ever could, but only I knew it and kept it buried deep inside of me. I took care of the funeral while my mother stayed holed up in the house. She was totally oblivious. She kept on drinking and smoking. I tried to speak to her, but she just dismissed my attempts.
She drank and smoked throughout the house, and I cleaned up after her mess. Sometimes I had to take her to bed when she fell asleep at the dining table or on the sofa. It broke my heart to see my mother in this state. She was once a radiant woman, full of life and energy, but now just two months after my father’s death she was merely a shell of her former self. I knew I had to stay strong for her, but it felt like I was losing my mother too. Not being able to do anything for her, I thought maybe giving her space for a few days would be better.
And with my final days of school approaching, I had my own worries—exams and all. With my best effort, I finished my exams. Only I knew that what I put in was the bare minimum, just enough to escape the hell of school. Not to brag, but I had been an exceptional student. Losing my father and my mother, who was totally unstable, sent me on a losing streak. Still, I managed to pull myself together and passed the exams in the end.
As summer began, my friends had it all planned out, full of parties, girls, and alcohol, but I wasn’t interested in them as my mind was occupied with my mother.
Shortly after I graduated, surprisingly, she had started going out, all dressed up. I never really had the chance to talk to her about it, but while I was busy with my job, taking care of our house, shopping, and everything else, she took the money from my dad’s insurance and began using it up. Mother had given me the login credentials for her online bank account so I could handle the household bills and stuff, and I could see the one big deposit and the many, many withdrawals. I decided to let her be. I desperately wanted her to recover and she seemed to start coming around. She drank less, showered more, helped a little around the house, and wore some new clothes. I was happy to see it.
Around the same time as Mother seemed to be recovering, one of my father’s friends, Jeremy, who owns a carpentry business, offered me a job. I had done a little woodworking with Dad, and he taught me a lot plus I still had his tools. Jeremy said he’d teach me everything I needed to know about carpentry. Work was good, with a lot of jobs coming in. Jeremy and his family had been in the industry for years, and they had an excellent reputation, which brought in a lot of clients. Soon I was earning decent money.
After I started making money, I bought groceries, learned to cook, and even prepared meals for my mother and served them in her room when she was home. But even when she was, she treated the things I did as things that I should be doing as the man of the house now. She didn’t really appreciate my efforts, and when she was home, she thought I should take care of her.