A mother is not a person to lean on but person to make leaning unnecessary.
Our imaginations seem to have been torn open . . . as by a charge of dynamite.
"Like other potentates with a long habit of arbitrary authority, she covered her perplexity with a smart show of decision."
Father sticks to it that anything that promises to pay too much can't help being risky.
One of the many things nobody ever tells you about middle age is that it's such a nice change from being young.