Reply #10: I do wish I could

[MorningGlow]

Alas, most of the events are hosted by my mom (her sister) and our family friend who was my now-deceased uncle's (their brother) ladyfriend. They're all in the same suburb, but DH and I live out in the hinterlands--not so very far, really, but as elderly folk, they see signs on the map that say "Here Be Dragons", so they won't come here. Plus there's all that crap about "hardly anybody in the family still alive" yadda yadda so we all have to stick together etc.

Plus I have halfway decent memories that DH doesn't share--when she was half-normal, she was like a second mom to me (o the irony--she has no kids of her own), but she completely flipped out when her husband died about 15 years ago and we don't get along so very well now.

On edit: Anger makes for bad grammar...