Mother Courage

Before last night's Republican convention, most of us knew little of substance about Ann Romney.  Sure she made a dream marriage with a gorgeous hunk (and nobody can deny that Mitt is a dream boat), sure she had five wonderful sons, but we really didn't know her.  She seemed to us just another lucky, privileged wife leading a great life, the life of the rich and famous.  That she was lucky and blessed to  have picked the right man when she was just a young girl, is indisputable, but so was Mitt, for last night I saw in her a woman of substance, a courageous person who seems to be the ideal partner for him.  She led a charmed life?  Think again.  She was struck with two horrible illnesses at the prime of her life.  MS is a capricious, devastating disease and no matter how long a person is in remission, it could always come back with great force.  People who have MS never take a single day of good health for granted, they have to live with the constant fear of ending up in a wheelchair or going blind.  The same goes for the much dreaded breast cancer, because everyone knows that no matter how early they catch it, it can always come back.  Sure he has a husband who'll be with her till the end of her life and obviously adores her (while others less blessed than her have to face these horrible diseases alone) but she's still a courageous woman.  A woman who has decided to face these horrible diseases head on and who will do much for their research if she ever gets to the White House.  She painted her husband as a strong, effective and generous man of "great moral convinction and integrity" and I suspected as much by the way he has led his life and has stood by his wife.