I recently went back to my hometown. I have not spent any time there in over 15 years. I rarely have been in the same state. (Delaware). Well, a relative died and she was the mother of a cousin so I went to the funeral. Here is why I don’t go home that often:
The woman, I’ll call here, Aunt Rose, died on Sptember 13th. Yep, you read that right. And the funeral was October 17th. Why? Well Rose had three children…all of which are older than i am, meaning that they were adults when I was still in junior high. They don’t get along and couldn’t get past their petty squabbles to arrange for a funeral for their own mother until now. And even that was accomplished because of the intervention of another relative of mine that stepped in and tried to quell their stupid quarrel.
Roses children…geez…Aunt Rose herself was a pretty good person, but her kids…lets just say if they weren’t realtives I 'd never associate with them. Her daughter, (fake name) Michelle is a witch and she’s passed that trait on to her own kids. I’ve got a few past bones to pick with her, but I ;et go of the anger of that 20 years ago. In a nutshell, she’s a lazy, layabout thief that mooches off of everyone around her. I don’t think she’s worked a day in her life. She lives with her daughter. The last outrage that I know she committed was forging a check in her own brother’s name and emptying his bank account. Her brother, my cousin (I’ll call him “Chuck”) isn’t a bad guy. He’s on disability and he used to live with me for awhile…he’s no saint but he’s not a thief and he generally tried to do the right thing. He didn’t press charges but the bank did (though the charges were dropped…don’t ask me how or why, I was out of town when it happened) but Michelle refuses to speak to Chuck and by extension me, simply because I speak to Chuck. This woman hasn’t seen mt in 20 years and she’s still upset that I once kicked her out of my house for hiding stolen goods in it when I wasn’t home!
Her other brother, “Mike”…well, he’s always been shady. But I learned from experience not to trust him. When I was younger, he not only wrecked my car, he borrowed money from me that he never paid back even though at the time I had very little money to loan him. I did it because he promised to repay me and he’s family. Well, I was a lot more gullible then.
Seriously, I can’t believe these people. They’re fighting over things that not only happened 20 years ago, they don’t even MATTER anymore. Its pathetic.
Wanting to not be involved in their squabble I spent my first evening home in so many years with an old friend…probably one of the best friends I’ve ever had. Good thing, too. An old girlfriend wanted to see me, and she has never hidden the fact that she’d like nothing more than for me to leave my wife and…well, you get the idea. I haven’t seen her in 18 years but she (no lie) userd to text me from Delaware five times a day, and drop clues leading to some kind of booty call. I had to block her number until she promised to stop. One thing she didn’t tell me was that she’d gained about 200 freaking pounds. If my old buddy wasn’t there I wouldn’t have been able to literally get her off of me at the bar. Thats the last time I go home and tell her I’m in town. Geezuz.
And the saddest part for me, personally. The house I grew up in. No one is living in it now. The old place is falling apart. Whoever owns it hasn’t taken care of it. I went to see it and it almost made me cry to see the spot where my grandma used to plant vegetables overgrown with weeds…the place where my dog used to have to a doghouse in the backyard. The porch where I would sit and listen to radio with my friends. The front yard where my grandparents built a snowman with me when I was six.
On the flipside, I do have relatives that don’t live in that town that came to the funeral that I was happy to see. Plus my two old friends that still live on the outskirts of town. Its a shame but in the future I’ll be visiting town to see them, not my realitives. I just can’t deal with the stuff that they need to let go off. Its 2009…stuff that happened in 1988 isn’t that important anymore.