You just have to learn to live with it really I know that's not the answer you want to hear and it will most certainly not lesson your stress unless you choose not to let it stress you. Your parents are ALWAYS going to want you around. When a mother lets her son go and a woman replaces her in his life some mother's have the HARDEST time letting go.
They get empty nest syndrome and start thinking about them night and day on top of their already obsessed thinking. Mother's will always love their children and maybe someday you will understand that maternal bond when you have children of your own. I have four children and I understand that feeling very well.
You watch them grow and hope for the best and you dream of their future but then the moment that day comes if they fly the coop you feel so lost because you've held their hand dealt with their crap and you love them through thick and thin and then they are gone living a life you always dreamed for them but you realize that for the majority you won't get to enjoy that life. What she does't realize though is even if you were down the street or less then 20 miles away you would still be this way. When children choose to find themselves outside of their family it tends to involve a rather form of distance and the more the parent pushes the more it causes a problem.
Don't let it cause you a problem accept that she misses him. Don't feel pressure to return just nod your head and show her you understand that she wants to see her son. My husband moved away from his family 3000 miles away, I understand the bond of his family and I know someday he might return.
I will be heartbroken if he leaves but I understand the need for his family. But it's perfectly okay to move on you just have to have a kind heart towards his grieving mother.
I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.