Bossy’s grandmother Bert works out a deal with her sister Jenny who lives across town and it goes like this: Bert will move in with Jenny and her Italian husband Sam in exchange for taking care of Jenny’s newborn baby. Because Jenny is a hoot and a goof but she’s wildly incompetent when it comes to nurturing and mothering—maybe because she herself was never nurtured or mothered. Bert didn’t have these advantages either, but she is softer and more compassionate and really really really wants to be the nurturing type. Or at least try.
So one day Walt arrives with his automobile and drives Bert away, belongings and all. She arrives at Jenny’s house with a couple of dresses and a box of dishes, towels, silverware, glassware, blankets, and sheets. As far as Bert’s concerned, the Old Woman and that whole scene? Over, done. Forever.
Over the next year she will single-handedly raise Baby Bertie while managing all of the cooking and housecleaning. At the end of that year Jenny’s Italian mother-in-law will take Jenny to task and teach her how to cook and houseclean according to her Sicilian standards. And at the end of that year Bert and Walt finally set their wedding date.
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