12/21/2025
Please don't share this or put it on YouTube or anything. I don't want this getting everywhere, it would devastate some people I care about. UPDATE: Y'all. I don't even know what to say besides thank you. You have been... clear and generous and demonstrated ALL the sense I was lacking. I realize I was brought up, in a way, to think all this was normal. Until the past week, I thought it was. So to the update: mom's sibling has been a storm of getting things done. I guess there's been an unspoken awareness in the family of the way I've taken on so much and my meltdown was not a massive surprise. I've had several texts of "hey you take care of you, we got this." Nice but like ... where was this especially the last 10 years? She and mom are actually investigating assisted living. Mom told her she doesn't want to become a burden. (Insert eye roll?) In any event, they are copying me on websites and stuff. I'm staying home with no plans to go down. I feel regret. It feels wrong not to be there. But I'm also feeling relief. I realize what many of you said - it wasn't the money, it was the idea she had no thought about taking care of me or acknowledging me as much as my brother. She's my mom. But also, it feels awful that she's parentfied me and infantilized my brother and that would be her last message to us. My mom's sister texted me that there are life insurance policies for my kids to cover a chunk of college and that mom's funeral and all that is prepaid. She didn't have to break the expectation of confidentiality and tell me (and here I am telling...