My close relative in Russia: forever trusts Putin and his war, but never his ministers and not Russia’s covid vaccine

I was going to be more upfront and write “My Mother in Law in Russia: forever…” but I thought I’d be a little kinder to my mother-in-law and not feature her so prominently…

It feels like this is a place to make a few jokes about my mother-in-law or mothers-in-law in general but this story is not that easy to write. When you write, must you be more sensitive towards your friends and relatives? I’ve always wondered about this question. It seems wrong to reveal their unglamorous traits or actions (not that I myself don’t have ugly traits!). But then it’s best to honest in your writing, isn’t it? If you sanitize your writing too much, you are not able to dig deep into real issues, real characters.

Anyway, I’m not writing this to diss my mother-in-law, though I certainly have a complicated relationship with her!

Rather, as in some of my other stories, I want to provide a glimpse into the hearts and minds of real people who I know.

So. My mother-in-law — will be eighty this year. Retired now but spent much of her career working for Russia’s Health Ministry in some administrative function (not a medical one). Lives in central Moscow. Widowed for decades. Fairly well traveled; among other things, she visited us many times in the US. Cooks the best pelmeni (dumplings) in the world and taught my kids to play piano.