Dysfunctional families

I was unfortunate to grow up in a dysfunctional family although I am sure there are worse families than mine but that really doesn't make me feel any better.

My younger brother does quite well for himself but I have no idea what he makes but I'm sure it is enough to make most doctor's jealous. My older brother makes about 2 1/2 times what I do and he gets along fabulously with the younger one. Me? I never got along with any of them. Still don't even though I try.

My mom will turn 85 next month and although she only ate cottage cheese and tomato wedges since I started the seventh grade and she no longer eats anything since turning 82 she still looks like a little beach ball with a face. I drive 200 miles round trip once a month to take her grocery shopping. Although she usually spends between $300 and $400 each month the sweets she buys are for company. Strange because she claims no one ever comes to see her.

Anyway, foolish me became concerned because last year in fell in the yard and laid there for hours before she got help and two weeks ago she fell in the house and it took her three hours to pull herself unto the couch. I suggested that maybe she could move to Randleman and leave in a hoyse just a few houses away from me. Since she has always objected the tought of spending any money on an apartment I suggested she might purchse the house outright and bank the difference she would make from the sale of her house. 'Oh, that would be wonderful" she exclaimed and she shed a few tears of joy.

"Of course, I'd have to talk it over with your two brothers first."

That was Thursday May 6, 2010. I e-mailed my two brothers and sent them pictures and vitals on the house so they would know what Mom was talking about. On Saturday the eighth, I received a letter from Mom saying that she was going to stay in Hickory because she would miss all her friends and it was too far for them to come and visit and too costly for them to call long distance and she would miss the memories of the house she lives in now and her brother who ony visits her on holidays and her doctors, none of which does her any good, she claims.

On Sunday she talked to the older brother when he came for Mother's day but only because he brought it up just before he got ready to leave. I got an e-mail from my younger brother saying that he thought Mom should sell the house but move into an assisted living facility but in Hickory, not Randleman.

Today I received a letter from my Mom saying she had never intended to mention my idea to my brothers, she would never consider moving from a brick house into one with siding, and that she could just as easily get someone from the church to take her grocery shopping if it was too much bother for me.

My concern was trying to take better care of her and to see to it that she was not left alone for long periods of time.

Now i am being accused of trying to make things easier on myself and to enrich myself by having Mom sell her house.

Sometimes I wonder why I even bother.