An Anne Tyler Day

You can love your children so much that it almost hurts, but you can also have days when you wonder just how much more of motherhood you can handle.

My little sister and I call the latter "Anne Tyler Days."



In a Ladder of Years, Anne Tyler's thirteenth novel, the protagonist, middle-aged Delia Grinstead is in her kitchen. Hmmm....at least I think she's in her kitchen. I'm always in MY kitchen when I have these thoughts. At any rate...Delia Grinstead is listening to her difficult husband and her full-of-attitude teens one morning. She opens the front door, walks out and heads to the beach. As she's walking along the sand, she thinks "I wish I'd thought to bring my purse." Because she has, all of a sudden, decided not to return home. Delia Grinstead walks away from all the turmoil and angst and frustration in her home. She becomes a runaway wife and mother. She hitches a ride to another community, finds a job as a secretary and lives an altogether different life than the one she abandoned.

So, when I call my sister or when she calls me and announces, "I'm having an Anne Tyler Day," it means we want to push open our front door and walk away from the whole mess called motherhood. Now, to be fair, we've never actually done this. We've never even come close. But we do love our little code.

So, if any of you ever phone or email me to say you're having an Anne Tyler Day, you won't have to give any more explanation than that. I'll understand exactly what you mean.

p.s. If I ever do act upon an Anne Tyler Day, I will NOT forget my purse!