The Boardroom Went Quiet When My Mother’s Phone Rang

I mean.”

Again.

That phrase. Family poison. You know what I mean. Meaning: I said the ugly part without saying it and now you’ll sound dramatic if you make me finish the sentence.

Aunt Elaine set down her coffee. “He knows what you mean because you’ve all been saying it for twenty years.”

Nobody had expected that.

Elaine was my mother’s younger sister. continue reading …