Matrigna

 

      Vice President Harris and I have several things in common. We both married late in life. We both married men who had been married and divorced. Our respective spouses both have children. This means we are both step mothers. (By the way, Dr. Jill Biden is also a step mother, because she married a widower with two children.)

  She is called Momala because she and her stepchildren did not like the term step mom. I'm not fond of the term either. Another person who dislikes the stepmom tag is Gisele Bundchen who prefers "bonus mom"

  I'm not a fan of the term either. Thanks to Disney, the Brothers Grimm and countless stories from those who have suffered at the hands of their fathers' wives stepmothers are considered to be root of all evil in blended families. 

  What do I call myself? I can't do something like bonus mom or Momala because most of my step children were adults when I married C. I was never a mother to them in the traditional sense. We've provided material and financial help over the years. Sometimes I've provided advice or a listening ear to those who need it. My role is actually more similar to that of Wendy Watson Nelson who married Russell M. Nelson, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 2006. She's more like a wise  aunt to her stepchildren  and companion to their father. There's not enough of an age difference between me and my stepchildren to really be an aunt. 

    I decided that I would look at what the word stepmother is in other languages. This isn't the first time I've turn to a foreign language to find a word. My grandchildren call me Oma, the German word for grandma. I chose Oma because I didn't feel like I was old enough to be a grandmother. I also didn't want offend any biological grandparents. It's short, easy to say and is just a flat out fun sounding word.

  The language I know best is German, but German words tend to sound worse than their English counterpart. I was looking for a nicer sounding word. I went to the next language I'm somewhat familiar with, Italian. 

  I pulled out my phone and asked Google what the Italian word for stepmother is. The result was matrigna (mah-tree-nya). I said it out loud. It is perfect. It sounds nice, almost musical. It sounds much better than stepmother or the German word, steifmutter.

  Matrigna is my new title. If Gisele can call herself the bonus mom and Vice President Harris can be Momala, then I can be matrigna.