You Don’t Always Have to Say It

By 16 I was already in college. I was so smart. Getting so educated. I had so passed my parents by! Psych 101 stressed the importance of telling children you love them. I asked my mother, “How come you rarely told me you loved me?” She replied, “Haven’t I always said how brilliant you are? How creative? How beautiful? How generous? How when you were born, I got the best gift in the world?” I said, “Yes, but you didn’t say you love me.” She sighed. “Oh, my dear idiot girl, that was me saying I love you!” — Tamara Robin Jasper