Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Family DRAMA - part 2

In case you didn't read part 1, check out yesterday's post.

So we left off with my father telling me to BEHAVE.  Thus, knocking me down to the status of a child.  I told him I am NOT a child, and I refuse to be treated as such.  Additionally, it is highly disrespectful.  He didn't seem to care.

He called back later to let me know that they still weren't at my Uncle's (it has now been 4 hrs.  I can't figure out what took so long).  He still didn't have the name of the funeral home, and I asked that he call me by 8pm, as Bro and I were probably going to go to bed early since we had to get up early.  It was 3:30pm at this point.

Did I mention that my brother paid $600 to fly up that day?  I picked him up at the airport around 6:30pm, and he stayed with me.  I hadn't seen him in several years, so it was sort of "nice."  Turns out....he thinks my parents are as loony as I do.

8:30pm....still nothing from my father.  I called....voicemail.  We have no idea where we were going in the morning...someone needed to know something.  But why communicate when you can just drive members of your family Bat-$hit crazy?  My brother tried calling at 9:00pm, and actually got my dad.

Now....be forewarned....I am NOT making this up.  This is actually what happened.

I am listening to Bro on the phone, arguing with my dad that we were NOT going to make it to the house by 9am (that would have required leaving at 5:15-5:30am) to take the limo (we didn't want to anyway, but in hindsight, should have taken the limo...more on this later) over to the funeral home.  Please just give us the name and address of the funeral home.  Finally he agrees....Bro writes it down.

The next words out of Bro's mouth....."So what time do you think you will be home from the hospital?"

Hospital?  Who is at the hospital?

Bro gets off the phone and just looks at me....."Sis, you are soooooo not going to believe this."

Turns out that my MOTHER (the one who needs all the attention), slipped getting into the mini van they rented (it was all the car's fault), fell backward, and HIT HER HEAD on the pavement.  Blood everywhere.  Had to be taken by ambulance to the hospital to rule out a concussion (it wasn't).  She had x-rays and a CT scan.  In the end, she shook up her brain pretty good and was going to have a big headache.  But she was fine.

Now, this is important for a few reasons...
  • She had to wear a compression bandage on her head, thus calling attention to the injury (oh, did she).
  • My aunt died of BRAIN CANCER, and now my mother is wearing this bandage on her head TO THE FUNERAL. 
WTF???  Really....you are actually going to upstage the corpse.  You can't just let the deceased rest in peace...you have to be the star of the show.  Later on, my uncle told my mom she should have been wearing better shoes, and that she wasn't paying attention.  And why didn't she take her medication, and THAT is why it all happened.  Yeah....Mom wasn't thrilled with her brother at that moment.

So, in a 24 hr period of time....my parents cancelled their trip to see us and flew to NY.  Mom managed to injure herself and get a ride in an ambulance and lots of bloody bandages.  Dad missed taking HIS medication, and due to his health issues and all the excitement, by the time we saw him on Wednesday, he was in bad shape.  Bro flew to CT, and spent WAY too much money doing so....all in the name of family peace.  I had to rearrange my schedule at work, deal with not knowing what was going on with the 'rents.  Deal with disappointed kids who were so upset that Grammy and Grandpa weren't coming.  Bossy threw a wicked tantrum.

And we aren't even at the funeral yet.   More to come....but to give you a teaser, this was part of it:

Uncle to Mysti:  You aren't too big for me to put over my knee.  

19 comments:

  1. Oh My word, you really lived through this?

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    1. Lived? Well, I guess technically. But my head was POUNDING the entire time.

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  2. Oh my word....

    If there is a prize for living through the most family funeral drama, you win, hands down. I don't even have to read part 3. That said, I can't wait to read part 3!

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  3. Stop acting like a (their) child. People treat you the way you allow them to, you wouldn't put up with this from strangers. There seems to be little to love or even like about your parents, so let them go. For your kids, it would be better to develop loving friendships with normal seniors, so they can see how normal people relate to others. Or keep in touch with your parents but expect NOTHING from them. Don't expect it, but if they show up for a visit, fine; but don't buy special food or wear yourself out cleaning and planning and .... Let them fit into your family's life, if they can't then bye-bye. You'll be doing your family a favor, you're NEVER going to have the happy child/parent/grandparent relationships you crave with your parents.

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    1. It is easier said than done. I do not think I act like a child though.

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  4. Wow, what a few days you have had! I thought my family was disfunctional. Praying for God's peace for you through all of this.

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    1. I have recently discovered that the dysfunction branches out all over the place!

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  5. It sounds like your mom got pretty hurt. I'm glad she is OK.

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    1. It sounds worse than it was. It isn't that I didnt' care that Mom got hurt....more that it created another of drama that no one needed.

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  6. Wow. Not funny at all that you were at funeral but it's like a bad comedy skit!!

    And "Uncle, you aren't to old for me to kick in the a$$ for threatening me"

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    1. My therapist said it sounds like a Woody Allen movie!

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  7. You're still seeing a therapist, right? Because I'm with Mary on you needing to disengage and lower your expectations and think of other ways to handle them.

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    1. Yes, and guess what we are currently working on...even before all of this happened???

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    2. See, it's a good thing--sometimes when you're doing all the work on changing your habits of dealing with people, you get tired of changing and tell yourself they are not that bad. Now you have BLOG EVIDENCE they are the hugest clusterfuck ever!

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  8. Sorry it's been so rough for your family! :( Hope things look up soon and your mom heals quickly!

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