Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Relationships

Mumsnet has not checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. If you need help urgently or expert advice, please see our domestic violence webguide and/or relationships webguide. Many Mumsnetters experiencing domestic abuse have found this thread helpful: Listen up, everybody

Inexplicable behaviour from my sister

124 replies

LiteraryGoat · 23/02/2024 01:21

I am trying to get my head around this.
A bit of background - fairly average family, one sister 10 yrs older than me. Happy parents with ups and downs, good lifestyle, both treaded very similarly and fairy. No one neglected or over indulged. I am now 50 yrs old.

My father passed away 10 years ago, quite suddenly. My sister's behaviour became terrifying and manipulative, during those first few years she took over my mother's life entirely, from finance to care. My mother did not resist as was very depressed and never recovered from the loss of my father. I calmly tried to discuss this with both of them at the time but it was impossible. It was heartbreaking for me to watch my mother succumb to this as there was no history of anything quite like it in our lives.

After several years I had to walk away. My sister was abusing my mother daily, screaming in her face, checking her bins for what she had bought or thrown away, taking control of her home and sacking a gardener my mother needed. I sought counselling to deal with it and was told to notify social services. When my mother went into hospital with an infection I was informed that she was mentally sound so nothing could be done about my sister's abuse unless she reported it. None of this was physical abuse, to my knowledge. I had to watch this for years feeling helpless, whilst my sister drove me out of the way, even hiding my parent's will and blocking all phones.
The abuse involved cutting mum off from friends, dragging her to places she didnt want to go, screaming and shouting in public at her and humiliating her. I was so scared for my mum's safety that I almost shut down inside.

Eventually my mother passed away during the pandemic, I was living at a distance at that time, so the house sale was dealt with by solicitors and split between myself and my sister. We didn't have to meet.

Fast forward to 2021 my sister contacts me, seemingly a calm and friendly person, saying our mother had left a smallish cash inheritance she had in her account and wanted to give me my half. I very, very tentatively resumed contact, it was nice enough, and I think the death of my mother had numbed me to the trauma of the past.
Since then, I regret this.
It took her until last June to actually send the inheritance to my account. There was always an excuse, passed off with a giggle or faux ditziness. Then she moved to texting me morning till night, utterly dominating my time with senseless questions, ploughing through boundaries and then buying me expensive gifts when she realised I was pulling away. To cut a long and tedious story shorter, she told me this Xmas that my mother had left a box of letters addressed to me, stipulating that I was to receive them when she passed. These had been written from my childhood to her old age. I asked her why she had never given to me in the past 3 years we have been in contact and she changed the subject, but with utterly no shame, declared that she had read them all and that she would bring them when she thought it was 'appropriate' Shock

My Dh has hit the roof. Our surviving older relative was also told this and said her jaw dropped to the floor. I am certain that no contact is the only sensible option now, as the past few years have been a tremendous drain, but...

HOW the hell do I process the trauma of the memories that have returned that were numbed? All of the pain and horror of watching her hurt my mother, telling terrible lies (about cancer, work colleagues, etc)? Hearing about the letters was like a thunderbolt that cracked open my memories of her abuse, my body is so shaken. I am happy to pay for some therapy, but in the meantime I would so appreciate some pointers as how to safely get her out of my life.

OP posts:
LiteraryGoat · 23/02/2024 01:53

Wanted to add, I am sorry that this post was so long, the memories have just stormed in this past week and I am finding it difficult to deal with them. I felt so, so helpless at that time. I never repressed the memories, but had to put them away to move on with my life.

OP posts:
Newnamehiwhodis · 23/02/2024 02:53

Oh this is heartbreaking. what hell you've been through.
and for her to hold those letters over your head - unthinkable.
of course it has reawakened old wounds - absolutely.

a good trauma counselor can help with this … honestly, I don’t have any answers beyond that. It’s awful and I’m so sorry.

I would give the sister no hint that you want to cut her off, try to get the letters, and then cut off all contact so you can heal.

she sounds like a psychopath.

MsRosley · 23/02/2024 02:59

Blimey. Complete and total narc. Was there not evidence of this when your sister was young?

LiteraryGoat · 23/02/2024 03:06

Oh thank you! I thought it was too late at night to solicit responses.
There were definitely some signs when we were young but she managed to treat me very well, taking it out on our parents. I only know this now thanks to an aunt confiding in me.
According to my aunt she was extremely angry when I was born, and whilst you'd think this was a typical sibling issue, she never grew out of it. According to my aunt, we were both treated the same and well loved.
My sister told me last year that my. mother neglected me until i was 5, that she had to 'bring me up as her own'. I personally know this is a lie, and thankfully have it corroborated. What a cruel thing to say.

I did occasionally hear her yelling with my parents when I was a child, saying 'why does SHE get so much, why is SHE so perfect'? But it only really materialised after my dad died when I was 40.

OP posts:
Garlicnaan · 23/02/2024 03:15

This is awful I'm sorry. Could you go to her house to try to get the letters, play nice for a day? Then cut her off.

MsRosley · 23/02/2024 03:48

So sorry you've having to deal with this, OP, on top of your grief. Sadly many of us have to do a complete reevaluation of family members well into our own adulthood. Your sister won't change. I agree that you and your DH should collect what belongs to you and then get on with your lives. Block her and her toxicity if necessary.

Scalby · 23/02/2024 03:57

As hard as this might be, if I was you I'd consider those letters were probably written under duress, if they exist at all.
I wouldn't want them. I suspect they'll be used to hurt you. I'd go so far as to say burn without reading, if you ever get your hands on them and go NC with your sister.

LiteraryGoat · 23/02/2024 04:13

The letters are real. Many years ago my mum told me she had written letters and poems for me for when she was no longer here.

I am accessing so much loathing for my sister, which is so new to me. I hardly know where to put it. The letters feel tainted somehow, which is so sad, since she read them. My mum did other, similar things for my sister, the letters were just her particular way of communicating with me. It was not favouritism.

OP posts:
Mammma91 · 23/02/2024 04:26

Oh god just reading this makes you feel nauseous. I’m sorry OP, that must’ve been hard. No contact is the only way forward for you, you need to prioritise your mental wellbeing. Get the letters -
all of them and cut her off. It seems like she’s releasing little snippets of what your mother had left to you, just to keep you clinging on. She is abusing you and your DH sounds like he’s already hit his boiling point. Have you ever seen the will? You need a copy now, if there’s anything else left to you, communicate only through solicitors. She has no right to decide what is ‘appropriate’ for a 50 odd year old capable woman. You’ll be better off without her OP.

dapsnotplimsolls · 23/02/2024 07:29

Hard as it will be, I think you have to cut all contact and assume you'll never see the letters. Otherwise, she'll hold them over you for ever.

BMW6 · 23/02/2024 10:36

You know your Mum loved you. Your horror of a sister is going to use the letters as a means of keeping you under her malevolent influence.

She isn't going to give them to you - if she hasn't burnt them already.

Let it go and tell her you won't have any further contact, ever, under any circumstances.

She sounds absolutely horrific. I'm so sorry.

TheSandgroper · 23/02/2024 10:42

You could certainly cut contact but before you do, if your husband is the very confident type, send him after those letters. He should just turn up on the doorstep and calmly not take no for an answer.

It’s amazing to women how people act when dealing with a strong man over any woman. If you can, take advantage of that.

Auntpodder · 23/02/2024 10:51

Would echo the advice of @TheSandgroper - your DH might be just the person to get the letters, perhaps accompanined by your aunt if she'd relish the fight. Or if that doesn't work or you don't want to do it, remember the love with which your mother wrote them and focus on that. Your sister sounds absolutely horrific.

Porkfest · 23/02/2024 10:57

I am sorry that you have experienced this for decades. What she is doing how is the definition of coercive control and is illegal - I would inform the police.

I also suspect she has edited and sullied the letters. I am not sure that I would want what she has doctored.

She needs to exert power and control over you - it’s abuse - take all of that back and away from her by going NC. If she contacts you more than x2 after you have asked her not to it constitutes stalking and harassment - again inform the police.

She is a dangerous and damaged woman.

Get professional help yourself and don’t look back. Keep yourself well away as you are her current target of abuse.

Porkfest · 23/02/2024 11:11

it’s also not inexplicable behaviour - read up on personality disorders and you will likely see which traits she has displayed over the decades - don’t go too far down that rabbit hole just enough to know she will never change except to get worse and although having a MH condition explains her behaviour it doesn’t excuse it.

Do you know why there was a 10 year age gap between you both?

perfectcolourfound · 23/02/2024 12:01

I'm so sorry to hear your story Op. I know a family where the oldest son has never forgiven his younger brother for being born. He was jealous and angry when his brother was born, spent their childhood ignoring his brother or being mean to him, and his adulthood ignoring him or trying to turn other people against him.

And their parents think that younger brother should try to build some bridges - older brother is 'misunderstood'.

dottiedodah · 23/02/2024 12:49

I think that there must have been a fair few issues with jealousy ,maybe she felt your parents loved you more ? However not your problem ! I would just block and move on

LiteraryGoat · 23/02/2024 13:55

Thank you all so much. I have no idea why my feelings are so delayed, it is as if I have been sleepwalking for 3 years. Her constant texting and asking me how I am, then small nagging texts peppered through the day and evening have been draining me. It is like I am always under observation.
I do not share any details about my life with her, so that is one sensible move on my part.
I realise now that she has to be the focus of everything, so she often lies about shocking events to get attention. Most of these stories are full of pot holes, and are usually about terrible health diagnoses or traumatic things happening to her - constantly.
She does not listen to any, and I mean any advice, gentle nudges or pleas. She is very confident in her actions and seems to have no awareness of people's feelings or pain.

My mother died in late 2020, peacefully, she did not die of covid 19.
My sister told all of her work colleagues that she did die of covid.
One of her colleagues lost a daughter last year and without shame my sister boasted that she was tired of her moping and yelled at her to be glad she hadn't lost her mum to covid! Shock

Getting some of this out here is really helpful to me, so I apologise if it is too heavy.

OP posts:
LiteraryGoat · 23/02/2024 14:05

In answer to some questions, I did notice her resentment but it was taken out in rages at my parents. She was ok with me until middle age, but never had much interest in my life as an adult.
My parents suffered a few miscarriages during the gap in our birth. I don't think they planned such a gap.
My sister also was very doted on by extended family when she was an only child. She had 5 ponies in her teens and was encouraged to be anything she wanted. I was more of a hippie and dropped out of education to live a festival lifestyle until I was 22, yet she still refers to me as the clever, pretty one who had everything. No one in the family EVER remarked on our looks.

OP posts:
Grenola · 23/02/2024 14:17

Oh gosh, I cried reading this.

do you think your sister will ever give you those letters? What is your gut saying? If u think she will and she may have ‘good days’ in her behaviour. Give yourself a cut off date for drawing a line under it all and in the time give her the opportunity to give them to you. After that I would also write her a letter, expanding in clear non emotional language that she tormented and abused your mother and yourself in the years after your father passed. That u will not be maintaining any contact and she is not welcome to contact u or visit and if she tries you will take a restraining order.

if u don’t think she will give the letter to u, do this all now.

there is no half way measure with her, she has caused too much trauma and pain for u to ever be able to have any kid of relationship. For ur own health u need a clear n boundary from her. Then draw a line and focus on yourself and healing.

my heart breaks for u xxxx

11NigelTufnel · 23/02/2024 14:19

You are effectively being blackmailed. You can't live your life around her whims while she holds the letters over you. You have never actually seen or owned them, so if you never get them you haven't actually lost. You just haven't gained them. Please go and live your best life and don't be coerced.

Notanewbee · 23/02/2024 14:21

LiteraryGoat · 23/02/2024 01:21

I am trying to get my head around this.
A bit of background - fairly average family, one sister 10 yrs older than me. Happy parents with ups and downs, good lifestyle, both treaded very similarly and fairy. No one neglected or over indulged. I am now 50 yrs old.

My father passed away 10 years ago, quite suddenly. My sister's behaviour became terrifying and manipulative, during those first few years she took over my mother's life entirely, from finance to care. My mother did not resist as was very depressed and never recovered from the loss of my father. I calmly tried to discuss this with both of them at the time but it was impossible. It was heartbreaking for me to watch my mother succumb to this as there was no history of anything quite like it in our lives.

After several years I had to walk away. My sister was abusing my mother daily, screaming in her face, checking her bins for what she had bought or thrown away, taking control of her home and sacking a gardener my mother needed. I sought counselling to deal with it and was told to notify social services. When my mother went into hospital with an infection I was informed that she was mentally sound so nothing could be done about my sister's abuse unless she reported it. None of this was physical abuse, to my knowledge. I had to watch this for years feeling helpless, whilst my sister drove me out of the way, even hiding my parent's will and blocking all phones.
The abuse involved cutting mum off from friends, dragging her to places she didnt want to go, screaming and shouting in public at her and humiliating her. I was so scared for my mum's safety that I almost shut down inside.

Eventually my mother passed away during the pandemic, I was living at a distance at that time, so the house sale was dealt with by solicitors and split between myself and my sister. We didn't have to meet.

Fast forward to 2021 my sister contacts me, seemingly a calm and friendly person, saying our mother had left a smallish cash inheritance she had in her account and wanted to give me my half. I very, very tentatively resumed contact, it was nice enough, and I think the death of my mother had numbed me to the trauma of the past.
Since then, I regret this.
It took her until last June to actually send the inheritance to my account. There was always an excuse, passed off with a giggle or faux ditziness. Then she moved to texting me morning till night, utterly dominating my time with senseless questions, ploughing through boundaries and then buying me expensive gifts when she realised I was pulling away. To cut a long and tedious story shorter, she told me this Xmas that my mother had left a box of letters addressed to me, stipulating that I was to receive them when she passed. These had been written from my childhood to her old age. I asked her why she had never given to me in the past 3 years we have been in contact and she changed the subject, but with utterly no shame, declared that she had read them all and that she would bring them when she thought it was 'appropriate' Shock

My Dh has hit the roof. Our surviving older relative was also told this and said her jaw dropped to the floor. I am certain that no contact is the only sensible option now, as the past few years have been a tremendous drain, but...

HOW the hell do I process the trauma of the memories that have returned that were numbed? All of the pain and horror of watching her hurt my mother, telling terrible lies (about cancer, work colleagues, etc)? Hearing about the letters was like a thunderbolt that cracked open my memories of her abuse, my body is so shaken. I am happy to pay for some therapy, but in the meantime I would so appreciate some pointers as how to safely get her out of my life.

Ty

thaisweetchill · 23/02/2024 14:31

My heart goes out to you OP. DP has had very similar with his sister, the only word I have for her is vile.

She did this to their Nan, blackmailed her for money, took our credit accounts in her name AFTER she passed.

DP's mom then got seriously ill in 2021 and was unable to do anything without his sister, she took over but she was unemployed and DP has a very full on job so he just let her, we thought she'd turned a corner but we know it was to get the glory of being the saint daughter. After she passed she took over control of everything but to give it to her she was fair in halving everything as his DM didn't have a will. I think DP got to the point of where he didn't really care about anything so just let her get on with it but he didn't want any contact with her.

She's done a lot more like taking credit cards out his DP's name, credit account in MILs name when she was ill etc, DP just had enough and cut all contact. The only negative is he doesn't have anything to do with his nephew now because he has to go through her, he has no family now besides from me and DS which makes me so sad.

The best thing you can do is cut contact, it'll give you such a relief. I'm so sorry about the letters, like a previous poster said can you act normal for one day and get them and then cut them out then?

LiteraryGoat · 23/02/2024 14:54

@Grenola This is exactly how I am feeling about going forward, thank you.

@thaisweetChill I'm sorry to hear that about your DP, I completely relate to the walking away and not even caring. My sister told me there was no will for many years just to punish me for god knows what. I just walked away and stopped bothering. She loved the drama. She had all my mother's possessions under lock and key. Thankfully my father had left a will stating the house was to be divided 3 ways on his death.

My last contact with her was 2 days ago. She had posted a wall of small texts, every one short and bland:
'Hi what are you up to today?'
'Are you ok?'
'work was awful, how are you?'
'I am getting in bed, I am worried about you'
'Good day, are you going anywhere?'
'It's raining, im tired today'
'Saying goodnight'

They look so innocent but there are over 10 per day, usually interspersed with dumping all of her problems on me. She reminds me of a bot, and I can assure you she is not interested whether I am 'ok', it is only to solicit a reply.
I have come to dread them. They are keeping a tag on me.
I finally sent a reply 2 days ago saying we didn't need this much text communication and could have a catch up at some later point, but in the meantime I won't be answering any more, take care.
Very unusually for her, she has stopped texting for now. I am expecting escalation.

OP posts:
Grenola · 23/02/2024 15:00

It really seems like ‘you’re her next victim’ that will now absorb all her attention/obsession and use as a mirror to her own narcissistic way of living.

dint ever doubt your need to cut her out of your life. When the time comes change your number, get a ring door bell cam and give her a cease warning that she isn’t welcome to contact u

x

Swipe left for the next trending thread