It comes to us from the CBC podcast Love Me.

Here's Peter Lang Stanton.

My mother had a catchphrase.

Life takes over.

She said it all the time.

Life takes over.

If she was out of shape or she'd lost touch with people, what are you going to do? Life takes over.

I did not write back.

But now, on the sheet of paper, it listed all the different countries that Pete had lived with his parents, Germany and the Netherlands and Jamaica, countries where Pete had always thought that his dad was going off to an embassy or a consulate every day to work for the State Department.

And I'm seeing, like, counterintelligence and counterinsurgency and deputy chief, chief of station, case officer.

Um, I didn't know what to ask next, and I, and I honestly don't know that we talked very much at all.

So we actually drove in a big loop and drove back down into the driveway, and, um, I was like, "Oh, wait.

Does, like, does Mom know about this?" And my dad goes, "Oh, um, she works there, too."

[laughs]

And, um, there were things like when I would go to the mall with my mom, um, she always made sure we knew a code word, and she would say, like, "Okay, so if, if Mommy's ever not here and somebody comes to pick you up, make sure they know the code word." And the code word was always Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Um-

But now, on the sheet of paper, listed all the different countries that Pete had lived with his parents, Germany and the Netherlands and Jamaica, countries where Pete had always thought that his dad was going off to an embassy or a consulate every day to work for the State Department.

And I'm seeing, like, counterintelligence and counterinsurgency and deputy chief, chief of station, case officer.

Um, I didn't know what to ask next, and I, and I honestly don't know that we talked very much at all.

So we actually drove in a big loop and drove back down into the driveway.

And, um, I was like, "Oh, wait, does, like, does Mom know about this?" And my dad goes, "Oh, um, she works there, too."

[laughs]

And, um, there were things like when I would go to the mall with my mom, um, she always made sure we knew a code word, and she would say, like, "Okay, so if, if Mommy's ever not here and somebody comes to pick you up, make sure they know the code word." And the code word was always Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Um-