I'm The Short Round One

I met Mom at her work tonight so I could lend my car to a friend who works at the same place. We swapped cars and I drove Mom home. On the way home, she was talking about her day, and the fun people, and the mean people she helped out. Then she got a kinda funny smile and mentioned talking to a customer on the phone. He asked how he'd know her when he came in and she said "just look for the short round one." When he came in later, a coworker of Mom's addressed him right before he spotted Mom, and he kinda laughed a little. The coworker asked why, and he said he'd been told to look for the short round one and that must be her. Later on, mom was helping him and they started joking back and forth a little. He made some joke about her roundness, then said "oh, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that." Mom said "I wouldn't have told you that if it bothered me, it's just a description, it's not gonna change." I love my mom, and I am so proud of her right now. Four years ago, I wouldn't have been able to take her swimming, she would have said something about how nobody'd want to see some middle aged fat woman in a swimsuit. Today she knows it, she owns it, she gets that it's her body and if somebody doesn't like it that it's not her problem. She's fat. I'm fat. We're fine with it.