Everyone has family stories, everybody's family is dysfunctional.We all have Mommy/Daddy issues, etc. But who is the least understood, most interesting member of your family?
For me that would be my mother's mother; Minnie.
Minnie was like a second mother to me, always there the whole time I was growing up, a helicopter grandparent before the label was struck. I was indeed the apple of her eye, could do no wrong, although I was often horrible to her as a pre-teen.
That she was so... (how should I put this?) Dynamic. She could love on you with all she had, but flip her switch - and I do mean 'switch', and well, remember "The Exorcist"?
As a kid it was like she could never do enough for me, even long after I would say "STOP!"
In 8th grade I had an after school paper route where we pushed carts with large spoked wheels (like horses would pull) full of newspapers. Like the poem about the mail, we delivered in rain, sleet, cold and serious snow.
Minnie was sure I would not make it on those cold snowy days and would just have to 'come to my rescue' despite my telling her not to. I was a kid with grit and would dodge her in the alleyways of Chicago. It was like a game.
She would fight a bear without a moments hesitation for any member of her family, and afterwards, after beating the bear, fight tooth and nail with her family.
The first time we visited as a couple, she was hospitable and nice to R for about 30 minutes, and then vetoed the idea of bringing our small child to see his aunt (her sister) at 'the home' because "he might catch cancer from her". That my spouse would disagree caused her to fly into a rage and the bats tore out from the belfry.
As I started studying psychology, I realized she was, technically speaking, crazy, and we had all been enabling much of her behavior all our lives.
When you are raised in a crazy environment, it never occurs that this is not normal.
Like 'it's not me, it's you"
I will say this, the last couple of years of her life, as advanced age set in, I never saw her angry - she became sweeter and delighted everyone at the nursing home.
For me that would be my mother's mother; Minnie.
Minnie was like a second mother to me, always there the whole time I was growing up, a helicopter grandparent before the label was struck. I was indeed the apple of her eye, could do no wrong, although I was often horrible to her as a pre-teen.
That she was so... (how should I put this?) Dynamic. She could love on you with all she had, but flip her switch - and I do mean 'switch', and well, remember "The Exorcist"?
As a kid it was like she could never do enough for me, even long after I would say "STOP!"
In 8th grade I had an after school paper route where we pushed carts with large spoked wheels (like horses would pull) full of newspapers. Like the poem about the mail, we delivered in rain, sleet, cold and serious snow.
Minnie was sure I would not make it on those cold snowy days and would just have to 'come to my rescue' despite my telling her not to. I was a kid with grit and would dodge her in the alleyways of Chicago. It was like a game.
She would fight a bear without a moments hesitation for any member of her family, and afterwards, after beating the bear, fight tooth and nail with her family.
The first time we visited as a couple, she was hospitable and nice to R for about 30 minutes, and then vetoed the idea of bringing our small child to see his aunt (her sister) at 'the home' because "he might catch cancer from her". That my spouse would disagree caused her to fly into a rage and the bats tore out from the belfry.
As I started studying psychology, I realized she was, technically speaking, crazy, and we had all been enabling much of her behavior all our lives.
When you are raised in a crazy environment, it never occurs that this is not normal.
Like 'it's not me, it's you"
I will say this, the last couple of years of her life, as advanced age set in, I never saw her angry - she became sweeter and delighted everyone at the nursing home.
