The other day she went shopping at Walmart, an experience that she complains about sourly each time she goes. "Where do they get these people that work there? The idiot farm?" "You should have seen this HUGE woman, easily 400 pounds and..." You get the idea.
She went to Walmart, and has a handicapped placard for her car (that she keeps in her hoardy purse until she is parked, which is technically the correct way to do it) and for the past 2 years has walked with a cane. She found a handicap accessible space, and started to swing in as a young mother was approaching her car. She had the cart either near, or somewhat in, the handicapped space my mother was getting ready to turn into. According to my mother, she took her time, was talking to her child, having her child hand her things, placing things carefully in the car, and in my mother's vernacular, "just pissing around, taking her sweet time." Again, according to my mother, at one point she looks up, and sees the traffic backing up behind my mother's 20 year old Honda, and motions for her to roll down her window, and informs her that she is holding up traffic.
My mother's reaction? She went ballistic. Screaming and yelling at her, and called her "FAT-ASS" and proudly/smugly stated that she "probably did not like being called a name, but she [sic] did not care since it was true, and besides that tub of lard knew better to open her fat mouth because she [sic] knew that I would get out and hit her." Then she proudly recounts the other drivers looking at her, and felt their stares were those of approval and support.
She says this to her formally FAT daughter. Who has struggled with my weight since I was in my mid twenties, and I am now 45. She knows I do not tolerate body or fat shaming. So it should not have been a surprise when I told her that I did not want to hear this story, she was simply cruel and it was totally unnecessary. She immediately started pontificating about how this 'cow' with her child inconvenienced her and the others... And she most definitely did not appreciate my commentary on how she could have resolved that differently...
- Politely asked the woman to re-position her cart so she was comfortable pulling in.
- Waited a moment or two more and go about her business.
- Drive past, and find another handicapped space, (there are usually MANY to be had at that particular store) or run one of her other errands in the same plaza and come back in a few minutes.
And my questions were even more annoying to her...
- Did you have your turn indicator on? If she asked you to roll down your window and said that it appears that she was unaware that you intended to turn in. She got all huffy, but I have seen her turn her signal off and sit, stewing, looking straight ahead in such situations in the past.
- What potential positive impact did you think being intentionally cruel was going to have in this particular situation? Even if this woman was being inconsiderate or slow, what does her body type or size have to do with anything other than your own bias?
- What makes you think you know someone is a 'greedy, lazy, slob' from their weight? Oh- that is right ... YOU DON'T.
She most generally uses cruelty as her go-to response when she is irritated, annoyed, embarrassed, etc. She is intentionally condescending and hurtful. I know this comes from her mental illness, but she is very calculated in it, and has an awareness that she is doing it.
It makes me sick. Not only is her home toxic, and is she toxic to anyone that attempts to have any sort of friendship or relationship with her, but she is absolutely vile to everyone else, unless she perceives there to be transactional, not a reciprocal, benefit to her.
That poor woman. She did not deserve what she got from my mother. And I also realize that there may be much more to this story than I was told, if it happened at all. But... this says volumes about her character.
This week I have seen two articles on the death of hoarders. One was a woman in CA that was found dead in her hoarded back yard of her hoarded home with a kitten in a carrier on her lap, and she was a cat hoarder as well. The second was in Columbus (Ohio) where a person hoarded their house to the point the floor joists gave away, and they died in the crush of the hoard. And the comments were a mix, but plenty of blame for the awful family that abandoned the poor person to squalor. You cannot help someone that does not want it, and you cannot want something more than someone wants it for themselves. I am sure when my mother passes, if I outlive her, that I will be blamed in similar fashion. I am already by many in her neighborhood and in her town. That is unfortunate, but she has actively and deliberately chosen, ratified, and reaffirmed on many occasions that this is what she wants, and she has chosen her illness over everything, including me. Especially me.
Hoarding... no one wins, NO ONE. Thank you for reading.
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