# When are you no longer an orphan?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-are-you-no-longer-an-orphan/564336>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [December 16, 2010, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-are-you-no-longer-an-orphan/564336 "2010-12-16T05:49:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\
**Post date:** [December 17, 2010, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-are-you-no-longer-an-orphan/564336/21 "2010-12-17T07:53:19Z")

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> [@Snickers](#):
>
> On a slightly different avenue, my grandfather (Mom’s dad) died when she was 33. After about 15 years or so afterwards, my grandmother remarried. In the past 5 years or so, someone referred to my grandmother’s new husband as Mom’s stepdad. Which he is, I guess, but it seemed really strange - the term didn’t seem to fit since Mom was nearly 50 when my grandmother remarried.

My dad’s dad got re-married after grandma died, too. We rarely call the “new wife” “grandma” even tho she’s been around since we were under 10, and we love her to bits. We still call her by her first name.

The funny thing is that she (new grandma) has this brother who is a pretty weird dude. He’s always hanging around their house - my grandpa hates it. He complains about him to my dad and my dad complains about him to me.

I recently pointed out to my dad that this dude is technically his uncle, by marriage. Totally threw dad for a loop!

(sorry to hijack. carry on.)

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