Certain elements may very well bring tears to your eyes, while others may just make your brows knit. It started as a marriage of convienence, so 'I love you's were probably not initially expected, but you'd think after five years some sort of proof of affection would have been established and SOMEONE would have told him saying the words were important. And that leads us to the miscarriages. One is bad enough, but 4!!! With a husband who thinks supporting is being strong and not breaking down. That's another thing SOMEONE should have spoken to him about. And, yeah, I have SOMEONE in mind, and the fact he didn't doesn't make any sense to me at all... even kinda ruins the story for me.
I understand how the ML got where he was with his back history and all, and quite honestly if you edited the grandfather out, this story would have made a lot more sense to me. But the fact is, there IS a grandpa and he's the kind and loving patriarch of the family. He's not perfect. He's realized he was too busy to do what he ought when he should have when the ML was young, but that was back then. Now he is available and loving and well respected by the whole family, so where was he?!? Yes, the husband should have been standing up to mom, but why didn't grandpa step in to correct his daughter when his grandson failed? Yes, the husband didn't comfort his wife the way he should, but why didn't grandpa take him aside for a man-to-man when he saw the heartache she was going through with each successive tragedy. It wasn't like grandpa and the ML had had a falling out. There was absolutely no reason grandpa could not have intervened on her behalf. In fact, the way he'd listen to her sob, and console her, and then not advocate for her with his grandson and family really bothered me.
It really leaves me in an awkward spot, because the person I'm most angry with is not the cold, impersonal ML who was ignorantly coping as best he knew how. The person who I'm most angry with is the kind, loving grandpa who could have done something to stop the hurt and, it would seem, didn't even TRY.
Certain elements may very well bring tears to your eyes, while others may just make your brows knit. It started as a marriage of convienence, so 'I love you's were probably not initially expected, but you'd think after five years some sort of proof of affection would have been established and SOMEONE would have told him saying the words were important. And that leads us to the miscarriages. One is bad enough, but 4!!! With a husband who thinks supporting is being strong and not breaking down. That's another thing SOMEONE should have spoken to him about. And, yeah, I have SOMEONE in mind, and the fact he didn't doesn't make any sense to me at all... even kinda ruins the story for me.
I understand how the ML got where he was with his back history and all, and quite honestly if you edited the grandfather out, this story would have made a lot more sense to me. But the fact is, there IS a grandpa and he's the kind and loving patriarch of the family. He's not perfect. He's realized he was too busy to do what he ought when he should have when the ML was young, but that was back then. Now he is available and loving and well respected by the whole family, so where was he?!? Yes, the husband should have been standing up to mom, but why didn't grandpa step in to correct his daughter when his grandson failed? Yes, the husband didn't comfort his wife the way he should, but why didn't grandpa take him aside for a man-to-man when he saw the heartache she was going through with each successive tragedy. It wasn't like grandpa and the ML had had a falling out. There was absolutely no reason grandpa could not have intervened on her behalf. In fact, the way he'd listen to her sob, and console her, and then not advocate for her with his grandson and family really bothered me.
It really leaves me in an awkward spot, because the person I'm most angry with is not the cold, impersonal ML who was ignorantly coping as best he knew how. The person who I'm most angry with is the kind, loving grandpa who could have done something to stop the hurt and, it would seem, didn't even TRY.