My mother tells me I owe her grandchildren

Dear Delyara, I am thirty-nine and do not want children. I have known this for years. My mother refuses to believe me. She says I will regret it, my husband will leave, and that after everything she sacrificed raising me, she deserves grandchildren. Last Sunday, she cried at lunch and asked, “What was the point of building this family if it ends with you?” I felt like a dead branch sitting across from her. My sister has two children, but Mum says daughters are different because I am her oldest and carry some imaginary responsibility she cannot clearly explain. I love my mother. She had a difficult life and motherhood was the center of it. I understand why my choice feels like rejection of the life she built. It is still my body. My husband supports me but stays quiet around Mum because he thinks this is between mother and daughter. Sometimes I wish he would defend me so I could stop being the villain alone. Tonight, Mum sent me a photograph of a baby belonging to someone from church with the message, “You would be such a good mum.” I have not replied. I am tired of being praised for a job I do not want as another way of telling me the life I chose is incomplete.