As a member of a large extended family, I have many in-laws. These include four sister-in-laws: three in Spain, and one in the United States. I love them all. My sister-in-laws in Spain are weird and wonderful each in her own way. However, this post is about the sister-in-law whom I see the least but cherish the most. She lives with my brother in North Carolina.
I will call her Rapunzel because when I first met her, she had the longest (and most breath-taking) hair that I had ever seen in my life. Tresses of blonde hair fell to her waist, framing an extremely lovely face. This in itself was enough to make people turn around for a second and third stare. However, what was infinitely more striking was the fact that within her heart she was and is as lovely as her hair.
In fact, I have always thought that if ever our galaxy were invaded by the Powers of Darkness, and all positive emotions were banned from the Earth, kindness, compassion, and love would find their last refuge in the heart of my sister-in-law.
Not surprisingly, when they met, my brother (who is far from stupid) fell irrevocably in love with her. As Italians say, it was a “colpo di fulmine” [thunderbolt], when love strikes someone like lightning, so powerful and intense, that it turns them inside out, and there is no going back.
That is more or less what happened to my brother. He was hit by thunderbolt. Quite miraculously (because such things are rarely reciprocal), Rapunzel also fell in love with him.
Nevertheless, this was at a time when my brother had few if any prospects. He had no idea what he wished to do with his life. He had been groomed to adhere to the family military tradition, which he had no liking for. He was thus expected to follow in the footsteps of our grandfather, a retired army colonel, and our uncle, a bomber pilot who had been fatally shot down over France in World War II. Since my brother had no military vocation, he was trying to figure out his future, and was also looking for a way to escape Vietnam (unfortunately, he had no heel spurs).
In his first try at college, the only subject that he had passed with flying colors was Physical Education. It was not that he wasn’t intelligent, but to pass a university subject, one should attend class occasionally, and he was more interested in partying. After spending his high school years in a military boarding school, his main ambition was to have a good time.
Nevertheless, this all changed when my brother met Rapunzel, who arrived in time to rescue him from being a ne’er-do-well. Largely due to her influence, he discovered his true vocation, and after an (obligatory) stint in the Coast Guard, he eventually graduated from college.
He thus became a Montessori schoolteacher like she was. Both adore their profession and are incredibly good at what they do. For many years now, they have been teaching small children, and are now fondly remembered by various generations of students.
The one time my brother and Rapunzel were able to visit us in Spain, my children were still small. They had never met adults who preferred to stay at home and play games with them all day instead of going out to do grown-up stuff. Even after so many years, this visit is indelibly engraved in their memories.
My youngest son, the policeman, was enchanted (but understandably perplexed) and asked me if his newly-discovered aunt and uncle were really grown-ups or had donned some sort of sophisticated disguise. I told him, yes, they were adults, but of an extraordinarily rare variety. They were adults who had only grown older on the outside, but inside, they had managed to remain children (a bit like a Kinder egg with a toy inside).
Now, in Times of Coronavirus, my brother and Rapunzel, who are still teaching, have had to adapt to the pandemic context and have been giving their classes on Zoom. In any case, my brother is no longer able to risk face-to-face teaching because he has a compromised immune system. Children can transmit coronavirus even without symptoms, as can all asymptomatic flat encephalograms, who believe that a mask infringes on their personal liberties and reduces the size of their reproductive organ.
Rapunzel does not have a compromised immune system. She adores face-to-face teaching as much as my brother, and could continue if she wished to. However, she is not willing to risk bringing the coronavirus home from school and possibly infecting him. As most of us with common sense know, asymptomatic people can spread Covid-19 the same as people with symptoms.
My brother and Rapunzel may or may not be able to continue with Zoom classes next year. No one knows what the school will decide. But if Zoom classes are not a possibility, she plans to retire. She will give up teaching, the profession that she has devoted her whole life to, for him. She loves my brother that much.
When my brother and Rapunzel married fifty years ago, they had their wedding rings inscribed with the phrase, “If ever two were one, then surely we”. The first half of the phrase is inscribed on one ring, and the second half is inscribed on the other ring. Each is incomplete without the other.
They also promised to love each other for all eternity. As we all know, that is what everyone says at a wedding, and at the time, both people generally believe it. Nevertheless, ‘eternity’ often has a timestamp of ten years or less. Even when the couple decides to remain together, eternity may eventually become a dark barren place, filled with arguments, repressed accusations, long cold silences, and a lifetime of regret.
However, sometimes (though not often) love really does last an eternity. And that is what happened when they married so long ago. On their wedding day, their vows were the truth. And so they remain, now, even in Times of Coronavirus.
