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This is the kind of soap-opera shit I thought didn't happen in real life. I do not have all the details, because when my parents asked me if I wanted to hear about the soap opera of B and C, I rolled my eyes and said no (not knowing that this was like actual SOAP OPERA soap opera, and not just ordinary drama and bitching). By the time I learned enough of the details to realize my mistake, most of it was over and my parents were on to other matters, so there are probably juicy bits i do not know.
For this story to make sense, you have to know that my parents have a habit of collecting people who are going through hard times and need support to get back on their feet. My parents invite them to live with them, and then just sort of ... adopt them. This is something they do even when they really can't spare the time/money/whatever. They take care of people. And once you're one of the people they take care of, you have to do something really drastic to stop being someone they take care of whenever you even hint you might possibly need help.
The one who was with us the longest (seventeen years, off-and-on, until mid-July) was C. C was the widow of Dad's best friend L. When L died, C was completely devastated and very unstable. She is a difficult person at the best of times--lovely to talk to, really smart, great sense of humor, but also really stubborn and not always rational, especially when dealing with general Life Stuff. VERY high-maintenance, high-drama type person. And her husband killing himself really Did Not Help. So Mom and Dad invited her and her one child still at home to move in with us. Once she was mentally stable, she'd move out for a while, decide she wanted to move back for whatever reason, yadda. And during this time she was moving in and out every few years, she got remarried! To B, who is almost young enough to be her son. B is a great guy to talk to, Mom and Dad really liked him, although he could be difficult at times. And not always 100% capable of handling general Life Stuff. (Just like C.)
B and C eventually got divorced. But by this time, they were living with Mom and Dad, and B had been added to the list of people they took care of. And their house? Is on a huge lot (used to be the core of a farm) with several outbuildings and sheds, a couple of which are insulated. Can't turn them into residences without breaking zoning laws, but you can put in a toilet and sink and futon and stuff and call it an office. So B was living out there and coming in to the main house to cook and stuff. And the divorce was amicable, and my parents and B and C had a side business together, and they're all living happily on the same property. C in my parents' basement apartment, B in a "shed" that is for all intents and purposes an efficiency apartment. C pays a nominal rent, B acts as a handyman in lieu of rent, everybody's happy. They lived in this state for several years. I dunno how long, at least five. Until this June.
Then three things happen in quick succession. One is that B's mom and stepdad get a really nasty divorce. Because B's stepdad figured the easiest way to break things off would be to have an affair and let B's mom find out about it. C knows B's mom and stepdad, obviously. They used to be her parents-in-law, despite being only a couple of years older than her. And when B's mom and stepdad divorced, C started flirting with the former stepdad.
Let me repeat that. C was making the moves on her ex-husband's former-stepdad. Leaving aside the whole "wow, if he thinks cheating is how you break up with people, what's going to stop a jerk like that from doing it to you, too?" thing, I am ... boggled. It did not end up going anywhere, and I suppose he was at least closer to her age than her ex-husband had been, but.
The second thing was that the side business that my parents, B, and C had together hadn't been doing well for a while and was going through its death throws right about then. It would not have lasted regardless of any other factors, but I am sure the tension between B and C because C was making the moves on B's former stepdad who had just cheated on his mom really blatantly did not help.
The third thing was that my parents hired a contractor to do some work for them, and B helped on the project as part of his whole "handyman in lieu of rent" shtick. And while he was working with the contractor, he bitched about C. And the contractor told his wife, who knew C and told her all about how B was trash-talking her.
C (who was, at this point, still flirting with B's former stepdad) flipped her lid and decided that B was a stalker. Obviously, the only reason he was bitching about her five years after they divorced was that he was obsessed with her and it was only a matter of time before he attacked! (It couldn't have anything to do with the fact that she was currently making moves on his very-recently-ex-stepdad or the fact that the business they had together had just gone under or the fact that they both lived on the same property and had very strong personalities.) So C went to my parents and told them that They Had To Throw Him Out or he would rape and murder her.
My parents ... explained very gently why they were pretty sure her fears were exaggerated, and that while they would be happy to beef up the security on the basement apartment that she lived in, they weren't going to kick B out until and unless he did something more than what they considered to be a fairly normal amount of bitching over recent events. They were friends with both B and C and they weren't going to throw B out of his home without rather more evidence of an actual problem.
C decided that wasn't good enough and moved out. And realized that B's former-stepdad was a jerk and kicked him to the curb. B decided that my parents hadn't defended him strongly enough and moved out in the middle of the night without telling anyone in advance. So, after years of living together as one big happy family, C has her own place (hopefully for good), and we have no idea where B even is.
My parents have now decided that since the basement apartment is open, it would be ever so much easier for everyone if my aunt (who lives alone and has significant health problems and whom my parents spend lots of time doing housework/yardwork/maintenance for) sold her house and moved in with my parents so they could take care of her ...
For this story to make sense, you have to know that my parents have a habit of collecting people who are going through hard times and need support to get back on their feet. My parents invite them to live with them, and then just sort of ... adopt them. This is something they do even when they really can't spare the time/money/whatever. They take care of people. And once you're one of the people they take care of, you have to do something really drastic to stop being someone they take care of whenever you even hint you might possibly need help.
The one who was with us the longest (seventeen years, off-and-on, until mid-July) was C. C was the widow of Dad's best friend L. When L died, C was completely devastated and very unstable. She is a difficult person at the best of times--lovely to talk to, really smart, great sense of humor, but also really stubborn and not always rational, especially when dealing with general Life Stuff. VERY high-maintenance, high-drama type person. And her husband killing himself really Did Not Help. So Mom and Dad invited her and her one child still at home to move in with us. Once she was mentally stable, she'd move out for a while, decide she wanted to move back for whatever reason, yadda. And during this time she was moving in and out every few years, she got remarried! To B, who is almost young enough to be her son. B is a great guy to talk to, Mom and Dad really liked him, although he could be difficult at times. And not always 100% capable of handling general Life Stuff. (Just like C.)
B and C eventually got divorced. But by this time, they were living with Mom and Dad, and B had been added to the list of people they took care of. And their house? Is on a huge lot (used to be the core of a farm) with several outbuildings and sheds, a couple of which are insulated. Can't turn them into residences without breaking zoning laws, but you can put in a toilet and sink and futon and stuff and call it an office. So B was living out there and coming in to the main house to cook and stuff. And the divorce was amicable, and my parents and B and C had a side business together, and they're all living happily on the same property. C in my parents' basement apartment, B in a "shed" that is for all intents and purposes an efficiency apartment. C pays a nominal rent, B acts as a handyman in lieu of rent, everybody's happy. They lived in this state for several years. I dunno how long, at least five. Until this June.
Then three things happen in quick succession. One is that B's mom and stepdad get a really nasty divorce. Because B's stepdad figured the easiest way to break things off would be to have an affair and let B's mom find out about it. C knows B's mom and stepdad, obviously. They used to be her parents-in-law, despite being only a couple of years older than her. And when B's mom and stepdad divorced, C started flirting with the former stepdad.
Let me repeat that. C was making the moves on her ex-husband's former-stepdad. Leaving aside the whole "wow, if he thinks cheating is how you break up with people, what's going to stop a jerk like that from doing it to you, too?" thing, I am ... boggled. It did not end up going anywhere, and I suppose he was at least closer to her age than her ex-husband had been, but.
The second thing was that the side business that my parents, B, and C had together hadn't been doing well for a while and was going through its death throws right about then. It would not have lasted regardless of any other factors, but I am sure the tension between B and C because C was making the moves on B's former stepdad who had just cheated on his mom really blatantly did not help.
The third thing was that my parents hired a contractor to do some work for them, and B helped on the project as part of his whole "handyman in lieu of rent" shtick. And while he was working with the contractor, he bitched about C. And the contractor told his wife, who knew C and told her all about how B was trash-talking her.
C (who was, at this point, still flirting with B's former stepdad) flipped her lid and decided that B was a stalker. Obviously, the only reason he was bitching about her five years after they divorced was that he was obsessed with her and it was only a matter of time before he attacked! (It couldn't have anything to do with the fact that she was currently making moves on his very-recently-ex-stepdad or the fact that the business they had together had just gone under or the fact that they both lived on the same property and had very strong personalities.) So C went to my parents and told them that They Had To Throw Him Out or he would rape and murder her.
My parents ... explained very gently why they were pretty sure her fears were exaggerated, and that while they would be happy to beef up the security on the basement apartment that she lived in, they weren't going to kick B out until and unless he did something more than what they considered to be a fairly normal amount of bitching over recent events. They were friends with both B and C and they weren't going to throw B out of his home without rather more evidence of an actual problem.
C decided that wasn't good enough and moved out. And realized that B's former-stepdad was a jerk and kicked him to the curb. B decided that my parents hadn't defended him strongly enough and moved out in the middle of the night without telling anyone in advance. So, after years of living together as one big happy family, C has her own place (hopefully for good), and we have no idea where B even is.
My parents have now decided that since the basement apartment is open, it would be ever so much easier for everyone if my aunt (who lives alone and has significant health problems and whom my parents spend lots of time doing housework/yardwork/maintenance for) sold her house and moved in with my parents so they could take care of her ...
