My Grandma

[Lindsey]

As I mentioned before, my grandma's husband passed away about a month ago. They had been married about 15 years. For the past 5 years, he has been in a home due to his Alzheimer's, and my grandma had to sell their cabin in order to pay for it. His family didn't offer to pay for ANYTHING, and my grandma could count on one hand the number of times they went to visit him in those 5 years.

Scott and I stayed at my grandma's house on Saturday night because we were in town for a Halloween party. We visited with her for about an hour before we left, and she didn't mention anything wrong. But when we woke up on Sunday morning, my uncle had just showed up and we found out that her late husband's family was coming to take away half of their stuff. Anything he owned before they were married, they wanted.

We took my grandma out for breakfast so she wouldn't have to be there when they came, and my uncle stayed back to pack up their truck with things. When my grandma married her husband, they had a garage sale and sold a lot of her things because they had doubles bringing two households together. Nobody thought this would be a problem. But they asked for everything... sets of plates, pots and pans, grandfather clock, every tool in the garage... When he was moving in with her, he was ready to throw out an old table that was in a terrible state and missing legs... My grandma said bring it anyway and we'll see what we can do. They spent weeks and weeks and got this table looking beautiful together and even got legs made to match the old existing ones. Until Sunday, it was my grandma's dining room table, big enough for all the company to sit around and eat and play cards. They took it.

When my grandma sold the cabin (across the alley from our cabin), she gave my dad their old boat that barely ran. My dad fixed it up, got the motor working again, cleaned it completely, and we've been using it for the past 5 years. His family called my dad on Friday to say they're going to the lake next weekend to take the boat. My uncle got a rifle from my grandma when her husband went into a home. My dad and my uncle got him into hunting and took him hunting for the first time and he just loved it! His family has nothing to do with hunting. But they called my uncle and wanted the rifle. He gave my brother another rifle of his for his high school grad, but so far they haven't asked for it, and my family has already said, no way are they getting that. It was a gift.

I am just so angry that they're acting this way! My grandma loved him and took care of him for so long and they're treating her this way! She was obviously upset on Sunday but held it together. She told us that it would have been her 60th wedding anniversary with my grandpa that day, if he were still alive. Happy anniversary, having half your house hauled away I know that my grandpa and her second husband are both looking down on this and they would both be upset she is being treated like this. Her second husband's daughter had the nerve to tell my uncle that when my grandma passes away they'll be back again to split things up! My uncle said "You don't know how wills work, do you?"

My grandma is going on a trip to the states later this month with her sister, and when she returns she is going through the process to change her last name back to our last name, and she will be done with their family forever.