My husband has an unusual family... there is Dolly, my mother in law... she lives here in Redford but has a barber shop over in Plymouth. the way the economy has been, it looks like she is going to be losing her shop. She wants to move it to her house, which is adorable and would be safer and perfect for her. She has three children: Amy, the oldest. Judy and Joe, her twins. She raised her children by herself while putting herself through barber college, then establishing her own barber shop. She'd been in business for 25 years and I think the thought of having to move her business to her house is killing her mentally. Dolly used to smoke dope and drink... party... she was not loved by her family. Her mother had her out of wedlock, then married another man, by the name of joe. Her mom had two other girls with Joe, and they all treated Dolly like unwanted garbage. All of Dolly's life, she strived to please her mother.
It seems after her mother passed, Dolly hasn't been the same. Lost, sad. Angry. The kids grew up in a difficult household..filled with anger and fear. Now, the kids don't want to have anything to do with Dolly, blaming her for everything that happened to them. It creates quite a bit of tension during family gatherings.
Last night I went to Dolly's house to put eye drops in her eye because no one else would do or wasn't available to do it. I found Dolly crying, sweating like she had a fever, and just upset. She unloaded on me about how all three of her kids hate her, and she knows she wasn't the best mother, but she just wishes for the love of her children. Especially Joe. she thinks Joe hates her. I asked joe about that, and he said he wasn't sure if he hated her or not...
I called mom last night after talking with Dolly and thanked her for providing me with such an awesome and stable childhood. As loopy and crazy as I thought my parents were, we truly were blessed with a stable home, loving parents, gramma maki who doted on us... so many wonderful opportunities that were given to us.
Treasure family... it's all you have in life....