Monday, October 18, 2021

Family

We’re going through some stuff with Carlos’ Aunt Gloria in Mexico. She’s ninety-five and living with a good friend of hers, but Gloria is declining and the woman, who shares the home with her ninety-something-year-old brother, cannot manage caring for two elderly people. So Carlos has decided to move Gloria back to the family home in Mexico City where there are more people to care for her, and a livelier environment, which might be better for her. He told her yesterday and there were tears and angry words and begging, but this is for the best. Carlos called his mother, who lives in the family home and told her about the plans and the conversations, and she told Carlos to tell me she was sorry I had to hear about the family troubles.

I said to Carlos these things, all true …

Remember, I’m the one whose maternal grandfather came home from work one day and found his wife in a compromising position with the next-door neighbor and shot and killed the man.it was Texas in the 1940, so my grandfather’s punishment was that my grandmother was granted her petition for divorce.

Remember, I’m the one who found out when I was in high school that my mother’s father, the grandfather in the above story, was not dead, as I had been told my whole life, because I came home from school one day and he was in the house.

Remember, I’m the one whose cousin married her uncle. Yes, years ago my cousin, Leigh, married our Uncle Rod. To be fair, Rod wasn’t a blood relative, he was the son of my paternal grandmother’s second husband but he was still an uncle to us, and it was  quite a strange thing for me, as a kid, to comprehend.

Remember, I’m the one whose aunt was living next door to my paternal grandmother, and her name was on the deed to my grandmother’s house, so my aunt sold her house and my grandmother’s house so she could move to Las Vegas and be near her daughter ….my cousin Leigh who married Uncle Rod.

I said to Carlos, tell you mother she needn’t worry what I think about her family strife, I have her beat by a mile.

19 comments:

  1. Hold on a second...Ill need another gin to get this to sink in dear..... and I thought we had drama.

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  2. Lucky Aunt Gloria has a nephew who cares - good for Carlos.

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  3. Ohhh Older relatives DO have opinions about where they want to live. Older people want to think they're 'independent' and that they have autonomy, even if it's nominal. But it is for her own good. Hopefully, things will settle down.
    And I'd love to sit with you and kiki about our families. Bet there's MORE where that came from...

    XOXO

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  4. Tell Maddy to pour me a gin, too. Holy crap! Truth is stranger than fiction.

    Please give my best to Carlos. So sorry he has to go through that. The right thing to do (and wonderful that there is that option); it would be so much easier if Aunt Gloria knew that, too. Carlos’ mother sounds very kind to be apologizing to YOU about this.

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  5. Very bestest to Carlos family
    and current issues.
    xoxo :-)

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  6. Wow, that's quite some family history you've got going on there. Makes Agatha Christie look tame!

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  7. @Maddie, Oh yes, honey, this is all true, and this is only SOME of it!!!
    Drink up!! 🍸

    @Helen
    Gloria has been like a mother to Carlos, even though he has a mother. Sje's very special to us both.

    @Six
    Gloria is moving back to the family home today, and from what we've heard, she's being quite pleasant about it, which is good news.
    And there is so much more to my family. Oy!
    xoxo

    @Mitchell
    Everybody drink!!
    Carlos has been worried Gloria might fight going back to Mexico City, but the move is happening today and she seems okay with it now.
    And Carlos' mother is such a sweetheart.

    @TDM
    Thanks. It's gonna work out.

    @Treaders
    Oh, and there's more!

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  8. I have to agree with Maddie... except make it a Merlot.

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  9. I think it a rather good idea and agree with your Carlos on sending his aunt to live in the family home. She will probably be much more comfortable there in the long run.

    And your family?!?! I thought it was scandalous when my own sister divorced her husband and then married her ex husband's brother.... meanwhile her ex husband turned out was gay and seeing our of our good family friends. I guess we all have scandals.

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  10. @Dave
    Whatever it takes ...

    @Agnes Goldberg-DeWoofs
    She moved into the house today and already seems to be doing better, so we're cautiously optimistic.
    Oh every family has one or two, or in may family's case, volumes!!!

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  11. I hope everything turns out well for Aunt Gloria!

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  12. I’m so glad Gloria has settled into things. I hope it all continues to go well and that she’s happy to be with family. Sending all my best wishes to everyone.

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  13. Dysfunctional families, we all have them, to some degree. They keep the shrinks and the lawyers employed.

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  14. @Debra
    We spoke to her last night and she's back in Mexico City in the family home and seems to be doing rather well.

    @Mitchll
    Thanks. We are cautiously optimistic. She's95, and feisty as sin, but she seemed better last night than she has in recent weeks.

    @Travel
    And the bartenders. Don't forget the bartenders.

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  15. Wow, those family secrets are something else. I'm not sure there is a family that doesn't have at least one scandalous secret hiding somewhere.

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  16. Well, you almost have my Family beat, you're in a dead heat with how crazy my Family Tree is!

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  17. There's drama in every family...but yours might have had slightly more drama than most!

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  18. Dearest Bob,

    Ok. I am declaring this contest over, and you win Most Dysfunctional.
    Girl, I thought I had dysfunctional until this one.
    Poor Carlos. Not for the faint of heart, but I have confidence he will persevere and overcome.
    Love and hugs to you both and to all God's children who have family - oh gosh.

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  19. @brewell
    Every family has something, we just have a wee bit more!

    @Bohemian
    Do tell ...

    @Steve
    And it's a wonder I turned out so normal?????

    @Sheila
    It is an interesting family, I'll give us that!!

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