In-Law Relationships Are Hard Enough Without A Language Barrier

I was working at a funeral where I watched the estranged Spanish mother of the deceased try to threaten and intimidate the young English widow. The thing is, from what I could tell, Spanish [Mother] didn’t speak English, and English [Widow] didn’t understand a word of Spanish.

Mother: *In Spanish* “You’re going to pay for taking my son away from me and from his country! I’m going to make your life miserable!”

[Widow] was just smiling and nodding. [Mother] was getting increasingly frustrated, and she finally got out something like:

Mother: *In English* “You… he… meet soon!”

[Widow] took it in a very different way than what was intended and scooped [Mother] up in a big hug.

Widow: “Thank you! I love you, too!”

[Mother] gave up and stormed off. I managed to keep my face straight long enough to pull the deceased’s brother aside and have a word. The brother rolled his eyes and assured me:

Brother: “I’ll have my mom on the first plane back to Spain. We’re letting her grieve, and this is how it’s coming out.”

I retreated to the prep room for more tissues and saw [Widow] talking to her Spanish brothers-in-law without their mother present — in perfect Spanish.

I’m reminded of some simple advice for Florida: never assume someone can speak Spanish. And never assume someone can’t speak Spanish.