Wisdom from Seniors #3

Several weeks ago, I sat with a delightful lady whom I shall call ‘Ester’ in the waiting room of the hospital emergency department.
We weren’t there for anything terribly serious, so don’t worry about that.
As we were waiting, conversation turned to Ester’s childhood (it is at this point that I should point out that Ester is about to turn 97).
“My father was a school principal” she told me.
“I guess that he must have been quite the disciplinarian then” I replied.
“Not really” she answered. “If we had done something wrong, he would look at us and say ‘What made you do that? Could you have handled it differently?’ ”
“He sounds like a great father”, I responded.
Ester smiled and then said “If we did something really bad, he would say ‘Go and tell your mother what you did’. Then we knew we were in for it.”
She laughed as she said this and I laughed along with her.
“Was your mother very strict?” I asked.
“She could be” Ester replied. “The thing I remember most about my mother is she had this look. Sometimes all it would take was a look and we knew we weren’t going to get away with anything.”
She paused for a second and then continued “I miss my parents”.