I was a late in life surprise baby to my parents and had two much older siblings. The eldest lived out of town, and by the time I reached adulthood, had passed away. Then there was my brother who was like an emotional tornado of destruction, marrying and divorcing multiple times, failing to pay child support, starting businesses that failed, stealing money, etc. The last straw for me was stealing money from our mother who was suffering from dementia.

I had so many financial messes to clean up, court appearances, hiring attorneys, etc. that I stopped talking to him because I could not stand the sight of him and what he had selfishly done. However, 14 years ago, I decided that I had to move on and I wanted him to know that despite the years that had passed in anger, he was still my big brother and I loved him. Glad I did. He’s now terminally ill and not one of his children are speaking to him.