"It's when they suddenly decide we are no longer of use to them" that comes across in so many people's experiences Socksandsocks and demonstrates just how cold and calculating it can be.
I think in some cases estrangement is a punishment, even if there's been nothing to deserve it, lies are told to give the decision justification and the P's and GP's aren't the only ones who get punished.
GC are punished too, by having the GP's they know and love taken from them as are other family members. GGM's like mine and Mr. S.'s mum who don't to see the their GC and GGC.
Yes, she does say we're Lepers Whiff. For so long hidden away by our silence, feeling on the fringes of society because we don't have that 'normal' family we think everyone else has.
Until you experience it, you have no idea that when someone says they don't see their children that they may be estranged. You think, if you think about it all, that they live in another country perhaps, or even 100's of miles away, and what's meant is they don't see them very often, not never.
It does feel at times as if we're treated like Lepers doesn't it DSL and there were times in the early days that that was how we felt because sometimes people who knew, would appear uncomfortable when we were around, as if we were somehow contagious.
It must be such a worry for you Onward. Our DS has been pretty ambivalent about the vaccine. Living in Perth, Aus. where the numbers have been extraordinarily low perhaps a false sense of security!!
We were relieved when he told us that as a teacher, he has to be vaccinated or he wouldn't be allowed to work. A push that got him off the fence thank goodness.
We never sent gifts Allsorts just cards to the GC for birthdays and at Christmas but we stopped doing that this year, just buying one now for the memory box. No longer feeling the need to send one in the post felt like another milestone past on our road to recovery.
Good luck with the knitting Spring my gran and mum were fabulous knitters; unfortunately I didn't inherit the 'knitting gene'. Managed one matinee jacket when carrying DS in comparison to a huge selection of beautifully knitted garments provided by my gran
.