Chapter 9 - MARGARET'S OWN MISTAKES
Margaret was not an uncomplicated victim in the family history.
She disliked Vanessa almost from the beginning.
Vanessa knew it.
Margaret criticized:
her spending,
her clothes,
her golf,
her friends,
her lack of children,
her cooking despite rarely cooking herself.
Once Margaret told David:
“She married your lifestyle.”
David snapped:
“That’s enough.”
He was right.
Margaret apologized badly.
“I’m sorry if she took it that way.”
Not an apology.
Vanessa never forgot.
Later Margaret refused to let Vanessa organize Thomas’s memorial reception.
Vanessa felt publicly rejected.
Their hostility became mutual.
Then everyone began interpreting every conflict through that hostility.
That was how dangerous behavior hid.
If Margaret complained:
Vanessa is pressuring me.
David heard:
Mom hates Vanessa.
If Vanessa complained:
Margaret sabotages me.
David heard:
Vanessa hates Mom.
The content disappeared.
Only tone remained.
Margaret admitted in counseling:
“I made it easier for David to dismiss me because I complained about everything.”
The therapist said:
“Yes.”
Then:
“Does that make the things that were true less true?”
“No.”
May you like
Important.
Being difficult does not revoke the right to emergency care.
