Just like Grandmama

Lucy could read when she was four, but she was very short-sighted.
"So like her grandmother," her parents sighed.
Clever Grandmama had been nearly blind for most of her life.

At eleven, Lucy had protruding front teeth, large feet and sturdy limbs.
"So like her grandmother," proclaimed Lucy's aunt.
"Grandmama looks so much better now that she has false teeth."
Lucy drew the correct inference.

Lucy endured the many, unflattering, comparisons until she went to teaching college.
"A teacher, just like Grandmama," muttered Lucy's mother
as she washed the old lady's underwear for the third time that day.
"Not like Grandmama," thought Lucy. Grandmama graduated top of the class. At the Sorbonne.
Lucy did well, but not well enough. She didn't achieve a First.

Aged thirty, Lucy's Grandmama was given her own school to run.
Aged thirty, Lucy was still teaching nine year olds in the same classroom where she had begun.

"These career girls miss out on having a family," said her mother meaningfully.
"Your grandmama, of course, had a wonderful career as well."
Lucy gritted her teeth. She handed in her notice.
She applied to teach as a volunteer, going to Uganda. Far, but not far enough.

"When are you coming home?" asked her parents.
"I hope you're not going to marry a black man," said her grandmother.

Lucy ignored them all.
She met a Ugandan, the son of a tribal chief. Married him - very happily.
Had two children - a boy and a girl.
Eventually, she had four perfect grandchildren. Just like her grandmother.