My Step-dad !!

That evening just after loosing my mother at the hospital... we had my step-dad in our car. We stopped for all of us to eat at IHOP. He said... "Well I am glad that she is gone!!" Then he added ... "Because now she does not have to hurt anymore." He was real calm and cool at the hospital and sat watching all of us cry. He was just too calm! It was like he was glad that she was gone and would not have to do anything for her again.

When we finally got to my mothers... the first time to walk in and her gone!!!! My step-dad said to me... "Tomorrow when you come into town could you buy me some Vitalise? I have not been able to wear it for years." He could have knocked me over with a toothpick!! My mother could not smell some things. She had a breathing problem. It was the smile on his face that made me angry!!

Here is a man that I had known since 1969... the grandpa to my kids and my step-dad for 30 years!! He became a stranger to me within the next several years??

We buried my mother on Saturday. We drove the Blazer and the Van and had everyone together except my oldest son and his wife and daughter. On Monday I went to my step-dad's and I made out thank you cards for the flowers. I off the wall made the statement that at times I thought mom was angry at me and I could not figure out why. He said to me!!!!!! "Your mother was jealous of you. She told me that if you and I had anything to do with each other, that she would disown both of us." WHAT???!!!! I did not say a word. I was in too much shock to even comment back to him.

That day he insisted that I drive him 240 miles the next day to choose her headstone. I was not wanting to go. It had just snowed a couple of days earlier and it was in the month of January. I did not want to drive in snow. I went to his house the next day. He held my coat for me to put it on. I yanked it out of his hands!! I stuck my finger in his face and I told him: "We will NEVER talk about my mother again like yesterday! She is gone and I refuse to talk about her that way!" From then on there seemed to be a silent war between the two of us.