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Produced by the ILAB at WBUR Boston.

From the New York Times and WBUR Boston, this is Modern Love.

Stories of Love, Loss and Redemption.

I'm your host, Megna Chacrabardi.

Let's face it, it's hard sometimes to break the truth to your parents.

And ironically, it can be even harder when you're an adult trying to establish some boundaries.

That's what Sung Woo discovered when his mother's culinary intrusions began to affect his marriage.

Sung's essay is read by Kumail Nanjani and Emily Gordon,

the husband and wife team behind the movie The Big Sick.

It's just been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.

Here they are, reading Overfed on a Mother's Affection.

My mother held out a Tupperware container of chicken thighs and drumsticks,

roasted with kimchi, bell peppers, onions and scallions.

It's a great dish. One of my favorites.

No, I said.

My mother and I don't fight often nowadays because I'm 41 and she's 72 and we lead separate lives.

I see her once every two weeks, she makes me lunch, we shop at Costco, she makes me dinner,

that she sends me off with grocery bags full of her cooking.

We've been on this schedule for the last eight years since my father passed away.

But on this evening, near the end of my visit to her senior apartment,

I could tell we were going to argue.

...