Hi, I'm Mike Rosenwald with Retropod, a show about the past, Rediscovered.

When George Washington was elected president, he did what a good boy should do. Road to Fredericksburg, Virginia, to tell his mom.

Barry Ball, Washington was 80 years old, ancient for a woman of that time, but still formidable.

George's visit, according to some accounts, produced one of the great mother-son conversations of all time.

When George told her the great news, here's what she replied.

I'm dying.

George was flustered.

That wasn't the response he was expecting.

He told her that as soon as he was settled in, he'd visit her.

But Mary cut him off.

She said clearly unimpressed,

this is the last time you'll ever see me.

But go, do your job.

That's more important. Just goes to show

mothers will always be mothers. Mary Washington was indeed a formidable force. Her husband was a

distracted British businessman who had already had two sons from a previous marriage.

He didn't pay much attention to George.

But George was Mary's firstborn, and she was determined to get the best for him.

Mary's husband died when she was about 35 years old.

She could have remarried, but a new husband would have gotten title to her land.

Plus, her husband's will had provisions giving his eldest biological son control over

George's inheritance if she took a new husband.

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