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I've Come To Realize That Blood Doesn't Make A Family

Memories that simply will not go away.

There are days when my mind is still full of sad memories,I have moved on in many ways but those memories remain and still haunt me.
I was told by my older sister that my father made my mother pregnant to keep her home,stop her gallivanting.After my birth, my mother resumed her gallivanting and my sister who was 15 years older than me had to look after me,a thing she never forgave ME because she had what I understand to be a narcissistic personality which would only become more pronounced as the years went by.Not having lived up to my father's expectation to stop my mother's escapades,I very quickly became a burden to the entire "family",I came at the wrong time,my sister could not enjoy her youth because she was always "stuck" with me,my brother was totally desinterested in me and at time could even be cruel,and my mother and father had by then separated,when my sister finally left 'home' aged 20,my mother was then "stuck" with me and never let me forget it."if it was not for you" "if you had not been born" Emile and I would be able to take that little holiday.
At time when she wanted some private time with her lover she would pack me on the bus and send me to my father in Marseille,That particular day,I was packed on the bus, (I was 12 years of age), to make my own way to my father's residence,he rented a small flat at the Caserne des Douanes where he worked,I found myself on his doorstep,to be told "I cannot receive you I am waiting for family!" I sat on the steps outside for quite a while hoping he would change his mind,I finally made my own way back to St Maxime by bus,I must say that Marseilles in those days was a quite a dangerous place and still is.I was 12 years old and making my own way alone through the streets.I arrived at my mother's residence,to find the table had been laid with the best china and groaning with flowers,my mother lost it completely "what the hell are you doing here? I sent you to your father," I explained the situation to her and she was ropable,she added a place for me at the table and later her friends arrived and she sort of "explained" my presence to them.During the meal she incessantly picked on me,to the extent that Emile told her to "Please cool off".
That night she had a stroke.
I went to live with my father,there was no other choice, and was reminded everyday that he had to "feed me",as long as I feed you this, and as long has I feed you that.When I visited my brother and his wife the first thing in heard as I walked through the door was "make yourself useful" Eventually I was put in a children's home but the nuns were kind and did not abuse their charges so I have no bad memories of it,in fact when I visited Marseille recently,my friends took me back on a pilgrimage,the place had not changed at all and I cried,because there were GOOD memories there.
I wrote that for myself, to get it yet again off my chest.
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Orangetas
Hi berangere, it is horrible to feel unloved by family and impossible to understand how people can be heartless.
But you have not allowed yourself to become a bitter twisted person, your persona here is always sweet, helpful, gentle, caring, spiritual. I know it doesn't help any, but the world is full of people who had loving kind parents yet they have somehow become nasty people.
I think that a flower is far more beautiful having grown through parched earth. .. hmm .. ya know what I mean .. something like that.
berangere · 80-89, F
Dear Tas,thank you for your support,it is only now years down the track that I realise how wrong and mean spirited their behaviour was towards me,when I was a child and an adolescent I believed something must be wrong with me,for them to react like this towards me,I even demanded to see a psychistrist! My father relented eventually and took me to see one,the man talked to me and then to my father,I distinctly head him say to himself "poor little girl" he then advised me to concentrate on my school work,I don't know what he told my father but things did not improve "at home".I supposed they enjoyed their "scapegoat" too much.
berangere · 80-89, F
And regarding how people turn out, I believe it is more nature than nurture!
Orangetas
I don't believe it is either so much as influence. The people in our lives who affect our beliefs and our moods. I have had many bad influences but now I am aware of this I consciously move towards people who I believe will have a good effect on me and move away from people I believe will affect my thoughts and mood badly.
berangere · 80-89, F
It takes time ,knowledge of oneself and experience to realise you do not deserve to put up with toxic people, be they family or so called friends and to develop the wisdom to know you deserve better and absolutely do not deserve to put up with what is after all THEIR problems and emotional sickness projected on to you.
Orangetas
Yes, I was thinking about this because I expected someone to point out that people around you IS nurture.
My point is that you rarely have choice in this as a child and only as an adult when you realise the difference between toxic and healthy loving people.
berangere · 80-89, F
My thought exactly.Rarely if ever children have the knowledge to be able to differentiate and can be made to believe anything by adults.