The past few weeks a story has played out in the local newspaper. When I first read about it, a dread crept up my spine, as I suspected what I would later find out would be the case.
A man, Robert, had been caring for his mother, Francis, for 10 yrs. He lived in the house with her and his dog. Neighbors saw him walking the dog, working on his van and working in the yard. They called him a hermit, but said he seemed very attached to his dog. The deed to the house was in his name and his mothers name.
His dog and his mother died about the same time. Now in come the siblings - a brother and sister. The brother lived locally and was a chiropractor. We don't know anything about the sister yet. Apparently there was an argument over the disposition of the house (the one that was in Robert and his mother's name). Robert, after giving up 10 years of his life to care for his mother, and after losing his Mom and his dog in rapid succession, and now seeing his home disappearing in front of him, got a gun. He shot his brother and his sister and then himself. His sister survived and drove her car until she passed out and got into an accident. Officers tracked her movements back to the house where they discovered Robert and his brother, both dead.
Please, don't let sibling differences come to this. Nothing is worth this.
And that I'm out of state, 1800 miles away from my side of the family.
You know when I read the story above, I Understood Robert. It's the ultimate betrayal. He took care of mom 24/7, she put his name on the house and now his siblings wanted to take it away. These same siblings who had a job, paid vacations (never thinking to invite him to go with them, etc..) and maybe didn't visit as often as they should - so that he can have some respite. That's my take - when I read this. They just pushed him over the edge.
Hopefully the sister can give more information to the dynamics that were happening within the family. Maybe the siblings wanted Mother in a care facility and Robert refused all those years. Maybe they wanted to help and Robert wouldn't let them. There's probably a lot of chapters to this story.