Welcome to our season premiere. Seven years into a serious relationship, Jake Maynard got a text from his mother: “Gramma Gert: 3, Jake: 0.” This was her way of telling him that his grandmother, in her 80s, was getting married for the third time, while Jake remained unmarried and childless in his late 20s. His family found this strange. Stranger still, at least in Jake’s view, was his grandmother’s choice of partner. (You’ll have to listen to the episode.) Today, we explore how two generations of the same family — 50 years apart — grapple with identity, tangled kin and the loaded question of marriage.
Dan Jones: Hi, I'm Dan Jones.
Miya Lee: And I'm Miya, and we are the editors of Modern Love at The New York Times.
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Dan Jones: Welcome back for a new season of the Modern Love podcast.
Miya Lee: In Modern Love, we publish essays every week
that explore the complicated love lives and relationships of real people.
And on this podcast, we'll bring you the best of those stories.
Dan Jones: The essay we're bringing you today is called 'Trying to Keep Up with Grandma's Love Life.'
Miya Lee: An inspiring essay, I think.
It's mostly about how to live your life
and how to love without fear of social expectations or judgment.
Dan Jones: Yeah, what I was struck by in this essay is how we often —
young people especially —
say they try to avoid what their parents and grandparents have done in relationships.
And in this case, it's like the opposite.
Miya Lee: I think it's kind of subversive.
Dan Jones: It's true.
It's written by Jake Maynard and read by MacLeod Andrews.
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Macleod Andrews: Three years ago,