Her mother continued to press. "Laura, I worry about you. I don’t want to run your life for you, if that’s what you’re thinking. You’ve done very well for yourself, and I’m glad for it, truly. But things can happen, through no fault of your own." She hesitated. "I want you to learn from our experience—mine, my mother’s. Neither of us had good luck—with our men, with our children. And it wasn’t that we didn’t try."