Meditation is important to Barnacle now. So, too, are walks along the beach, and riding the exercise bike. She is not speaking with her father, again. They go to Collingwood games together. Mother wants daughter to be whatever she wants to be, and to not to have to grow up too early.
Daughter can confide in mother about anything, most recently about being dumped by a boyfriend.
Barnacle rues not having the same sort of relationship with her mother, who died of cancer some years ago. Perhaps one of the most poignant aspects of Barnacle's life, her mother remains a lightly sketched individual, accepting her life's lot. Of course, Barnacle acknowledges, her parents were part of a stoic generation that had been through a war. Emotions in the family were rare. You were like stone.