ABSTRACT
When I was asked to consider the question, What Do Mothers Want? I playfully replied, What Do Grand-mothers Want? I then decided to take my question seriously. I would speak first about mothers, as I have often done, then consider the desires and thoughts of grandmothers. As it turned out, I could not simply add grandmothers to the family scene. In the presence of grandmothers on the page, I became self-consciously aware of the particular generational position from which I write. I am only now beginning to understand the new ways of thinking this shift of focus may provoke. 1
