— Ler, mom will have to buy an apartment! Yes, it will cost money, but it’s for our own good!
She’ll live in the city, nearby, and will stop bothering us over every little thing.
— And where are we going to get the money for an apartment, Leny? Do you have some secret account with millions that I don’t know about? How are you going to buy mom an apartment?
— Well, I don’t know… How about we take out a mortgage in your name? I think it will solve all our problems!
Lera wasn’t lucky with her mother-in-law — Angelina Pavlovna, Leonid’s mother, was demanding and quarrelsome.
For some reason, she only bothered the younger son and his wife, not the older children.
Lenya married Valeriya four years ago, and during all this time, their family lived like on a powder keg.
Angelina Pavlovna constantly called her son:
— Lenya, come over immediately, I urgently need your help! – the phone rang when the couple was already getting ready to sleep.
— What happened, mom? Are you feeling unwell?
— It’s not a phone conversation! Come quickly, I’m waiting for you!
When her mother-in-law called late in the evening for the first time and asked her son to come urgently, Lera was scared: after all, she’s an elderly woman, what if something happened to her? Maybe she’s feeling bad?
The couple quickly gathered, got in the car, and drove to the nearby village. They arrived quickly, in just 40 minutes.
Angelina Pavlovna seemed perfectly fine:
— Mom, what happened? — Leonid asked in fear, — what’s the rush?
— The lightbulb on my veranda burned out, — Angelina Pavlovna explained calmly, — I wanted to go outside and get some fresh air before bed, and almost broke my leg in the dark. Change it!
Lera lost her speech:
— Angelina Pavlovna, you pulled us out of the city at 11 p.m. just for this? For a burned-out lightbulb?
— I didn’t invite you, — the mother-in-law stated, — I only asked my son to come. Why are you sticking to him?
Yes, exactly! Just for a burned-out lightbulb. What, do you want me to get injured?! Change the bulb and go back. I want to sleep!
Lera already understood that life with Leonid would be difficult.
No, her husband satisfied her in every way, she had no major complaints about him, but his mother…
Angelina Pavlovna was constantly pulling the blanket over herself, it was like she was competing with her daughter-in-law in everything.
Every weekend, Leonid and his wife went to his mother’s. Lera loved to cook, so whenever she had free time, she was always baking something.
Seeing that her daughter-in-law was baking buns, Angelina Pavlovna would run to the store, buy ingredients, and start making sweet dough. Then she would demand her son to taste and compare whose buns were better:
— Try these, Lenya! These are the ones you loved so much as a child. I bake them using my grandmother’s recipe. I’m sure they taste much better than the ones your wife made!
She’s young, she has no experience. She doesn’t know how to handle dough properly. Her buns will be stale by morning!
Lera endured her mother-in-law’s attacks primarily because her husband asked her to:
— Darling, it’s her age, — Leonid explained to his wife, — mom is alone, her sister and brother live far away, they don’t visit her often. Who else can she turn to for help but us?
— But there have to be some boundaries, Leny! Don’t you think she’s just making fun of us?
Calling us at 6 a.m. on Saturday, waking us up, and demanding we come urgently to chop wood for her bathhouse. At 6 a.m., Lenya! Why does she need a bathhouse that early?
— She’s just like that, — Leonid smiled apologetically, — and I think, Ler, she’s jealous of you. She’s not used to the idea that I’ve finally grown up.
Angelina Pavlovna chased her daughter-in-law both directly and indirectly. After getting married, Lera forgot what a vacation was – she spent every summer with her husband at her mother-in-law’s village, weeding the garden, watering the beds, harvesting, and canning vegetables.
Lera didn’t understand why Angelina Pavlovna needed 30 two-liter jars of pickles, 30 jars of tomatoes in their own juice, and a 40-liter barrel of sauerkraut.
And Angelina Pavlovna never shared her pickles with her daughter-in-law, never offering to take a few jars with her.
In the second year of their marriage, Leonid’s mother fell ill — her blood pressure spiked, and she was hospitalized.
Leonid immediately took action, transferring her to a private clinic with experienced doctors and better care.
Angelina Pavlovna’s stay in special conditions cost the couple a pretty penny, which had to be paid from their shared savings.
When Lera found out about this, she was rightfully outraged:
— Leny, why wasn’t a regular hospital good enough for you? Why did we need to spend almost 300 thousand on a private clinic? Where did you find an institution with such a price? We don’t even live in Moscow!
— It’s a full service package, which includes not only medications and care but also rehabilitation after the crisis.
Ler, she’s still my mom, I have to take care of her! If something happened to yours, I wouldn’t even mention the money!
— Of course, you wouldn’t have mentioned it. Remember when my mom’s car broke down, and I gave her 10 thousand for the repairs, you lectured me for two weeks!
— That was a difficult time, — Leonid waved it off, — let’s not argue about money now. They were spent on a good cause!
After Angelina Pavlovna was discharged from the hospital, Leonid decided to temporarily move in with his mom.
Lera resisted as much as she could — she didn’t want to live in the same place with her mother-in-law:
— Lenya, why do we need this? The doctor said that Angelina Pavlovna feels fine, her health isn’t at risk. How will we fit in there? Her house is small, just four rooms!
— Mom needs care, — Leonid insisted, — and we’ll only stay for a month at most. Then we’ll return to the city. Lera, you have to understand, I’m really worried, my heart aches for her!
In those three months of cohabitation, Angelina Pavlovna really took advantage — she left all the household chores to Lera.
A woman returning home from work at 9 p.m. had to get up, cook for the next day, clean the house, and do laundry on an old machine.
Meanwhile, Angelina Pavlovna lay on the couch watching TV and commanding:
— Lera, there’s dust under the table. I’m telling you, it’s dusty, I can see it from here! Move the table and wipe it. The curtains need to be washed too. Take them off, let’s go.
— Angelina Pavlovna, can we at least move the laundry to tomorrow? I’m exhausted, I have to work tomorrow, I want to go to bed!
— It’s okay, you don’t have kids yet. Just imagine how hard it will be when a baby comes.
Take it off, I said, quickly wash it, hang it up, and by tomorrow evening they’ll be dry. When you get back from work, you can hang them up.
Lera’s patience ran out after three months. She put her husband in front of a fact:
— I’m moving to the city apartment! If you want, stay with your mom, I don’t mind. I can’t stand this village life anymore!
I’m not getting enough sleep, my work performance is dropping, and the boss is constantly yelling at me. I’ve even started being late because I don’t hear the alarm clock!
— Lera, my own health is more important to me.
— Lenya, how can I leave my mom? — Leonid whined, — she can’t manage without us!
— She’ll manage just fine! She’s healthy, there’s no high blood pressure, but when it’s time to rinse a plate, suddenly her head spins, and she feels weak all over her body. A washed-up actress!
Valeriya returned to the city apartment. Leonid stayed with his mother, but after three days, he asked to come back:
— Lera, I’m coming today, — Leonid called his wife, — we talked with mom, and we decided she’ll be fine without me. It’s really inconvenient to get to work from the village!
Lera smirked to herself: Apparently, Angelina Pavlovna had driven her son to the brink of a nervous breakdown in those days.
Leonid arrived, and life seemed to return to normal. The couple rested for a week, and Angelina Pavlovna didn’t bother them.
During this time, Leonid was strangely gloomy, and Lera immediately noticed the change in his mood but didn’t ask any questions. She decided that if Leonid wanted, he would tell her himself.
And so it happened. On Sunday, during dinner, Leonid suddenly said:
— You know, Lera, what I’ve been thinking about for the past week?
— About what? — Valeriya asked, mostly to keep the conversation going.
— We need to move mom to the city! It will be more convenient for all of us. Really, why does she live alone in that village?
There are no good hospitals, the ambulance takes a long time, you have to wait hours. We are so far away.
Lera got scared: is her husband really planning to bring his mother into their one-bedroom apartment?
— Where will Angelina Pavlovna live? We don’t have room, even for the two of us it’s cramped!
— No, I wasn’t planning to bring her here. Maybe I’ll talk to her, try to convince her to sell the house. We’ll buy her a one-bedroom apartment.
— I doubt she’ll agree to your proposal, — Lera smirked, — I have a feeling, Lenya, that nothing will come of this idea.
Leonid was determined:
— I’ll still talk to mom! Tomorrow evening after work, I’ll visit her, bring her groceries, and find out what she thinks about moving.
Angelina Pavlovna, as soon as Leonid finished his story, threw a tantrum:
— I grew up in this house, my father built it with his own hands! I’m not selling it, no way! I want to die here.
But I’m willing to live in the city, I’ll come to the village in the summer, like to a dacha.
— Mom, where will you live in the city? — Leonid asked.
— Buy me an apartment! I know you have money. I like your idea, I agree. Let’s do this, son, take care of it!
Leonid spent nearly a month persuading Lera to take out a mortgage.
Valeriya didn’t want to go into debt for her mother-in-law’s sake, so she refused. Her husband threatened her with divorce, and Lera suddenly realized that she was tired of this marriage.
She filed for divorce herself and asked Leonid to move out of her apartment.
Leonid was offended by his wife, but he complied with her request. The couple has not yet divorced, but Lera has already mentally prepared for a free, peaceful life.
