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I Wish I Had Told My Sister Our Mother Was Dead
Should I have?
Everyone thinks I should have told her, no matter what the circumstances. The truth is I didn’t tell anyone. I didn’t want my father to know because he never had a single good word to say about her. And I found out many years later, he was a compulsive liar.
I have firm beliefs about funerals. If you haven’t got time to see the recently deceased or keep in touch with them when they’re alive, don’t bother coming to their funeral.
So when my mother died, I didn’t tell anyone. If my sister had asked about her just once, I would have told her. My mother had a stroke when she was in Sydney and the hospital wouldn’t allow her to go home to her bed-sitter so I organised for her to be transferred by air ambulance to the hospital in Brisbane so she could be closer to us. I’d take the kids to see her in rehab and then in the nursing home after school. She loved seeing her grandkids. Her face would light up when she saw them.
My sister had a baby at the time and wasn’t working and our mother would beg, BEG, for me to get my sister to bring her other grandchild to see her. I kept on making excuses but I ended up begging her myself. She visited ONCE in two years and NEVER went again. She never asked how she was doing. So when our mother was put into hospital I didn’t tell my…
