According to the delightful Passive-Aggressive Notes, Lorna in Adelaide found this eyebrow-raising classified in a local newspaper.
WHAT COULD IT MEAN??? WHAT IS THE BACK-STORY HERE???
(My favorite theory from a Passive-Aggressive Notes commenter: It’s not an apology. It’s code. “If you are looking for cheap pot, Maura will be in the bathroom fixture section of the Home Depot at 4:00PM.”)
Everyone needed to take a deep breath and calm down?
It’s not a good apology–lots of blame-slinging–but why should it be?
There is no remark in the world so mean that cutting off one’s hand is an appropriate or likely response. And witnessing such a thing, or being told that one’s remark had caused such a thing, would be very traumatic. (And Maura’s clearly still upset.)
So Barbra owes Maura more of an apology than the other way around. Good luck getting it.
What was she a volunteer for? Was Barbra some kind of mental patient who was talking about her mother, and Maura said how lucky she was even to have a mother? And now Maura thinks that Barbra cut of her hand because of her remark? I think everybody needs some help in processing reality.