You call this a “honeymoon”? a family vacation is MORE like it! Not my photo…
An outside perspective that made everything cleared back up, translated…
Everybody who’s ever heard about my honeymoon experiences would always flash that look of sympathy to me, and exclaimed, “What, seven of you on a trip? That’s not a honeymoon at all!” yup, I thought so, that’s not called a “honeymoon” at all.
Based on the traditions, marrying within a hundred days of my father-in-law’s death, was six whole months before our supposed wedding date. Because my mother-in-law lost the partner she’d relied on for her whole life, she’d become distraught, too depressed, and almost lost her will to live. As we’d stated, that we didn’t want to leave my mother-in-law to go on our honeymoon, and so, my second eldest sister-in-law posed the idea of traveling with us on our honeymoon, with my mother-in-law.
“Like we’re accompanying mom, helping her through the loss”, and based off of just that, I’d given up my dream honeymoon in Bali, and, the group of us headed toward Europe. My eldest and second sister-in-law, with their young children along, plus the two of us, and my mother-in-law, the seven of us traveled for ten days. On the way, my mother-in-law was still very fragile, and would break down and cry from time to time, and we’d needed to, work hard, to help lift her moods.
After so many years, as I recalled how our honeymoon became a family vacation, there were regrets from my perspectives, and, I’d felt I never got my dream honeymoon, and I’d, complained on it a lot.
a honeymoon for the newlywed couple, not my photograph here…
A few days ago, I’d told my English conversation class about this. My foreign instructor, as the classmate felt bad for me, he’d asked me mildly, “So, your older sisters-in-law came back home to give your mother-in-law the support she’d needed, and you too?”, “Sir, you meant, they were, showing me support?”, I thought I’d heard it wrong. “Yes, they were, supporting you. Back then, they’d returned home, so you didn’t have to face and care for your mother-in-law all on your own.”, my English instructor smiled and looked at me.
Then, it was like, I’d, awakened, from a dream. And, my English teacher WAS correct, on that trip, my older sisters-in-law dropped their work, and accompanied us to our honeymoon. They’d guarded my mother-in-law left and right, took care of the kids, so my husband and I can hold hands, at the back of the group, as we take in the sights. I kept complaining about how we’d never gotten the chance to honeymoon, just the two of us, without noticing my sisters-in-law’s kind and gentle gestures.
Thanks for my English teacher, Paul, because of his heart filled with warmth, through his eyes, I was able to find that gently ray of light from the frozen parts of the past.
So, the woman saw the honeymoon trip to Europe as ruined, because she didn’t go on that trip with JUST her husband, but the rest of the family, the sisters-in-law, and the mother-in-law, and it felt more like a family vacation, but, as the English teacher pointed out to her, she’d gained a brand new perspective of the events that happened, and learned, to appreciate what her older sisters-in-law did for them.