The story of Ruth and Naomi is an old one, a Bible story told to youngsters seated in short chairs. Ruth says to her mother in law, "Wherever you go, I'll go too." As a kid, I like the romantic part, when long before Bruno Mars said it, Ruth said, "Boaz, I think I want to marry you." But the other part, where Ruth follows her mother in law away from her family home and all she knew, that I never understood.
I'm lucky in the mother in law department. I've got a nice one, a kind one, a giving one, but would I go with her wherever she went? Trust me, she's been to some wild places and I tend to be more of a homebody! For 20 years it seemed like all we had in common is we love her son.
But then life got hard and sad for all of us and suddenly I knew what Ruth was thinking. It isn't blood that ties us as family, it is love. And that love will lead me to do all sorts of things I never thought I could, just because I saw a way to help, a need to fulfill, a hand to squeeze when things were rough, and a person I could be friends with.
I never made it to visit my mother in law in Morocco, I can't visit Baghdad, but her next post is Ireland. I'm going to start saving my pennies right now to make that happen.
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