Shocking Stories About Your Golden Era Relatives

[ChiTownScion]

Wow. Was this injury suffered shortly before his death? Or did the effects of an old one finally catch up with him?

Please forgive my morbid curiosity. Such matters are of interest to me in some part because of my close acquaintance with a couple of people who succumbed to injuries suffered many years previously.

Head injury. Went into a coma and died a few days later. As much as I miss him daily, I realize that he would have been miserable in a nursing home, deteriorating day by day, etc. The really sad part about not having him still around, though, is that my father in law, who is a far less noble individual than my dad was, is still alive and trying his best to make everyone around him miserable. Thankfully, he lives nearly a thousand miles away and we haven't crossed paths for years.

 

[tonyb]

Prior to this deadly condition which reared its tentacles a few months ago, I figured my dear old pops would live to see at least 100, seeing how only the good die young.

My father-in-law (who is but 10 years my senior, cradle robber that I am) is a fine fellow dealing with a very unfortunate situation: Alzheimer's, and a tussle between his new bride (they've been married maybe five years) and other relations. I do believe the motivations of those other relations are more noble than those of the wife, who had made of him her meal ticket from the first she set eyes on him.

Certain girls do what certain girls gotta do.

 

[ChiTownScion]

Prior to this deadly condition which reared its tentacles a few months ago, I figured my dear old pops would live to see at least 100, seeing how only the good die young.

My father-in-law (who is but 10 years my senior, cradle robber that I am) is a fine fellow dealing with a very unfortunate situation: Alzheimer's, and a tussle between his new bride (they've been married maybe five years) and other relations. I do believe the motivations of those other relations are more noble than those of the wife, who had made of him her meal ticket from the first she set eyes on him.

Certain girls do what certain girls gotta do.

My dad's second wife (since you mentioned cradle robbing) was the same age his oldest son (my older brother) would have been had he lived past 16. She was a wealthy young widow, and when my dad was exposed to that wealth he turned into a real ba***rd. He and I were estranged for 8 years: didn't speak at all. Then the CEO of their family business drove it into the ground, and they were suddenly among the blue collared class once again.

We subsequently reconciled, and the humbled man I got to know later in life was a lot nicer and more genuine. My kids could not have asked for a better grandfather. And his wife really became the love of his life. Loved my mom dearly... but I would have never stood for the crap that she- or more correctly, her family- dished out if I had been my dad. After my dad died, his wife developed cancer: radiation and chemo only forestalled the inevitable, and like my mom, she died too damned young. Perhaps it was better that he did not live to see that, as I think that it would have broken him.

Main difference between my dad and my father in law: generational. Dad was Depression/ World War II, and the FIL is Korean War (then career Army officer). I am convinced that those are two entirely different species. Dad as I noted had the model work ethic, and the FIL's life motto was always, "Close enough for government work." The latter never worked a job in the private sector in his adult life and yet has become the stereotypical anti- government right wing red neck. It boils down to character, and while we all know that the good and the bad populate all generations, I think that historical realities have shaped the probabilities as they have played out.

 

[tonyb]

...

We subsequently reconciled, and the humbled man I got to know later in life was a lot nicer and more genuine. My kids could not have asked for a better grandfather. And his wife really became the love of his life. Loved my mom dearly... but I would have never stood for the crap that she- or more correctly, her family- dished out if I had been my dad. After my dad died, his wife developed cancer: radiation and chemo only forestalled the inevitable, and like my mom, she died too damned young. Perhaps it was better that he did not live to see that, as I think that it would have broken him.
...

Good to hear that the old guy was able to redeem himself in his later years. Any person who doesn't cringe at the memory of some of the things he did and said back in his earlier years is a person with very little self-awareness, or no memory whatsoever. You can't undo what's already been done, but you can learn from it, and you can try to make amends.

The only good thing in my brother's death at age 53 is that he was spared seeing his wife, the girl he met in high school, battle ovarian cancer. I have no doubt that he would have done all he could to comfort and care for her, and I have little doubt that the would have been unable to sleep without strong medication. He always was a worrier.

 

[FedoraFan112390]

I have quite a few:

My grandmother was/is a neurotic sort. One day in the early 1960s, my grandfather was driving her and the children home in the Battery Tunnel, from Manhattan back to Brooklyn. She apparently/supposedly saw a drop of water hit the window and got out of the car and began running.

My grandmother's sister was dating and later married an Austrian man during the 1930s. In the 1940s, during the War, another sister, who didn't like him, called the FBI on him and claimed he was a "Brown shirt". It wasn't true, but it made his life hell briefly.

When my grandparents (Italian man and Irish woman) got married in 1949, my grandmother's father (Irish) refused to pay for the wedding because the groom was Italian, or as he put it "an inside out n***er"