Wow. Almost a year already since Mom passed last June. Time flies even if you're not having fun apparently. Approaching the anniversary of her death has been bringing a lot of the mental garbage back that I had to deal with in the months preceding her death and following up through her funeral. Most notably... my cousin Sue.
Susan Wilbur. Eldest of my aunt Olene's children. More like a daughter to my mom than a niece. Viewed by my brother and sister and I as another sibling, more so than a cousin. In our family, we often grew closer in relation to one another than our official status. For so long, Sue was greatly loved and adored by our family.
I think that's why her betrayal toward the end surprised and hurt so many of us so badly. To be fair, we had been warned for years about Sue by her own sisters. The stories often surprised us, because they just didn't seem to jive with the Sue that we knew for so long. Turns out we were always being shown the face that Sue wanted us to see. Not necessarily the one that lurked underneath.
At the time that Sue dropped her bombshell about putting both Mom and Jojo into a group home (without having ever discussed it with either one of them ahead of time) part of me was still thinking she might be operating with the best of intentions for them. I was pissed, however, that she thought she could pull something like that off, counting on my full cooperation. I got the feeling that she never gave me any credit for being able to stand up to her and prevent this from coming to fruition. Surprise.
So Sue ended up being added to the other members of the family who pretty much got disowned for one reason or another. Mom was spitting nails up to the day she died about Sue's attempts to hijack their lives like that. One of Mom's dearest friends told us several stories about how angry Mom was at the end, and the things she had to say about Sue. As it turns out, Sue never did see Mom again after her plan was foiled. And I suspect that's for the best.
On the other hand, when Sue's time comes, she's gonna have some 'splainin' to do. I suspect there will be a whole congregation wanting to know what the hell was going through her mind.
