YOUR SECRETS FIND A HOME • YOUR JOURNEY IS PRIVATE • YOUR WORDS ARE SAFE • YOUR SECRETS FIND A HOME • YOUR JOURNEY IS PRIVATE • YOUR WORDS ARE SAFE • YOUR SECRETS FIND A HOME • YOUR JOURNEY IS PRIVATE • YOUR WORDS ARE SAFE • YOUR SECRETS FIND A HOME • YOUR JOURNEY IS PRIVATE • YOUR WORDS ARE SAFE •
The BondFamily

My sister wants half the inheritance but none of our mother’s care

Dear Delyara, My mother has dementia and lives with me. My sister moved abroad ten years ago and visits once or twice a year. I do the medication, washing, appointments, night wandering, bills, and the repeated conversations where Mum asks when Dad is coming home although he died nine years ago. Yesterday, my sister called to discuss Mum’s will. She wants reassurance that the house will still be divided equally. I told her yes because that is what Mum decided while she had capacity. Then I hated myself for resenting it. My sister says she has a life and children overseas and cannot simply move back. That is true. I also had a life. I reduced my hours. My marriage is strained. I have not slept through a night in three years. When I said that, she offered to pay for a carer one afternoon a week. I almost laughed. Mum sometimes calls me by my sister’s name. On those days, I am performing all the care while being addressed as the person who left. I love both of them. That love is becoming tangled with a calculation I am ashamed to make: how can half of everything be equal when almost none of this has been?

ANONYMOUS