the little dot speaks out.

I was very happy to have met you, and how kind you were when you were here. It is unfortunate that you have this notion that I am behind my mother's call. I did not know she was even going to call him. That being said, there are two sides to every story, and ours' is no different.

The last thing I would ever do is to take advantage of the one constant in my life for my entire 43 years, my mother. I have never said anything that she had not already thought herself. I am sorry that you feel that my parents did nothing for you as children, and that as an aunt, I am nothing. I can live with that. I have absolutely no control over your thoughts of us, or whatever you have been told growing up. While it is true that we were unable to travel, remember my mother has had Cancer since she was 56 years old, and the doctors had all advised her that air travel, or any travel over long distances or for long durations would be very difficult if not impossible for her. So, I suppose they had hoped that your parents would have understood that, and brought you to see them. My mother told me that they mailed things to you kids over the years and that none of the mailings, gifts of money or otherwise, were never acknowledged. A simple telephone call to let them know their package had been received and a thank you might have been nice, but that was up to your parents, not you or M, as you were children at the time.

As for me and my life, well, not that I am making excuses, it was a very rocky road, my marriage was a difficult one, and it was not until recently I was able to reach out to you or Morgan. I figured that we are all adults now, and my issues were never with you kids. My brother is older by 10 years than I, so when he got married and moved away, he never looked back, to any of us.

If you would like to know some of the things I held against him here they are; he was too busy to attend my high school graduation. Not a big deal now, but back then it sure was. Then there was that little matter of his little sister getting married. He could not attend for one reason or another, I don't even remember what is was about anymore, that was 21 years ago and it certainly doesn’t matter. But there are memories that I have as well.

Unfortunately, S, we have lived on a very different scale. You have had many more advantages and opportunities than I ever did. That is just the way it was. To say that I have manipulated my mother into calling her only son and ragging him out, well, that is just unacceptable.

He made no effort, in my mind, or hers, to maintain any sort of relationship with them or me after he married and we moved to NB. There have been a handful of times that he has even come here for visits. Further to that, he & I have not communicated on a regular level. It is a sad fact, but he and I are virtual strangers. He has some kind of resentment or something. I have not ever known what I ever did to him.

My mother is a very strong willed woman who knows her own mind. I am certainly in no position to tell her anything. To accuse me of using her against you kids is inexcusable, but I firmly believe that it was your father talking through you in this email. My mother has been feeling very forgotten about by her only son for many years, not just since my father passed away. For years both of my parents wondered what they ever did to have D turn on them. That was the way they saw it. To them, it was, unfortunately your father who denied them the honour of being grand parents. To that end, I saw an aging couple who never saw their eldest child. A man who they saw as too busy in his own separate life to include them. I take my cues from my mother, not the other way around. I am loyal to the woman who chose me and made me hers; who raised me to be the honest, hard working woman I am today. To that end, there are two sides to every story.