Got in touch with a cousin yesterday - a cousin who lived in the same small town I did, but she may as well have been living on the moon. My Nmother's family was so very weird that, although I lived in a town of about 300 people, I had no idea until I was in high school that I was related to half the town! I went to a dentist that my mother called "Uncle Doc" , but I thought it must be some type of term of endearment because I honestly didn't know that he was my mother's uncle, my grandmother's brother-in-law, and that his wife was my grandmother's sister. I don't even know if they had kids... I have no idea what my grandmother's brother looked like, although he, too, lived in our town. When a guy in high school asked me out, I was surprised to learn that he was my second cousin. I think this is beyond strange - and thinking, as I've been conditioned to think my whole life, that maybe I was just a frightfully unaware child, I was pleased to know that at least two of my siblings had the same experience.
Was grandma the scapegoat of her family or the golden child? She was institutionalized a couple of times and of course no one knows exactly why - depression? Anxiety? Was she bi-polar? Her parents came from Germany on their honeymoon and settled here in the late 1800's and then most of her family was caught behind the Iron Curtain. I remember grandma sending care packages to East Germany to help family members. WWW, her flying monkeys, and both winkies deify my Nmother's parents - I'm not sure why, except these grandparents seem to have validated the choice of the golden child and her protectors and minions early on. These grandparents were also wealthy, a situation that is held in high esteem in my Nfamily. This is certainly a generational curse.
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