I'm in my 60's. I have been married 4 times. I have done a lot of therapy in my life.

My siblings are dead. My brother shot himself, his ex-wife, and their two kids on the day their divorce was finalized. My sister ran away from home at 16 and OD'ed in Seattle 3 years later.

My father died in the waiting room at the VA hospital from a sudden heart attack. He stopped caring about his diabetes because he didn't want to deal with my mother's Alzheimers. He took the easy way out.

I took care of my mother for about 18 months while I settled the estate, sold the house, and found a nursing home for her. She died about a year later.

She was not a nice person. She disinhibited from the Alzheimers and said all sorts of things during this time. Including reminding me frequently that my father had "been fucking the whore you married" before the wedding and for years afterwards.

She was talking about my first wife. It was true, although she isn't a whore and is actually a very nice person. She did have an affair with my father. She told me about it years after our divorce when she doing a 12 step program and called me up to "make amends".

My mother was not a nice person.

But it was just part of a very full, rich life. I have done and seen amazing things in my life. I have loved and been loved. I have traveled the world. I have gone to great schools and drunk from the well of knowledge. I have experienced great sadness and sublime joy.

I have had a life.

This is one of my stories.

addendum.

I don’t “do” personal stories very often. If you haven’t read it, Random Thoughts — 02 : Imagine there’s no Heaven is really the only other piece I have done where I mention my childhood.