WHAT OF MY MOTHER?

my father was a young man when
my mother died suddenly, both
families encouraged him time
and again saying, he was young
he needed a wife, his boys needed
a mother, after  awhile, he took their
advice and my father did remarry, for
better or worse he was ready to move on-
what of my mother, would  she have been
given the same advice? if the circumstances
had been reversed-  probably not, they would
have said, tend to your children, and tend to
your husbands grave, be a dutiful wife
you do not need to be married again, so she
would have poured herself into her duties, raising us
as best she could, and she would have continued
being the grieving wife, for as long as it took
until it was her turn to die, doing everything she
could to make his lasting repose;  her life's work
like a good wife if the situation had been reversed, she
would have accepted her circumstances; not changing a thing