Hoping she will forget me.

I don't feel you are and I had a good relationship with mom. Although she tasted me like an adult with all the worries and doted on my siblings, which resented tremendously. Basically, my *job* was to be their mom and to support them. However, I did not and certainly do not harbor illwill, but do not buy into some old lady or man, no matter how sweet little old person seems, I know they could have been awful people. When staff wonder why no one visits, there just might be a darn good reason. You reap what you sow.

After reading posts here for a few years, I think I can understand this outlook. I cannot "relate" to it, thank heavens. I have been fortunate not to have been dealt that particular hand. My heart goes out to those of you have been.

Makes sense to me, too. When my NPD mother passed a year and a half ago, I was mostly relieved. I had mourned the mother I never had, the relationship we never had, long before she passed. Then I was thrown into caring for my father, who although not NPD, comes from the entitled generation who has no fears or cares for anyone other than himself. He's 91 pretty healthy mentally and physically, and like Joanne56, I cringe when I hear from his doctors (the simultaneously self congratulating and soul crushing news) that he could easily live another decade. 103, emjo, yikes!

This whole ordeal just scares me. I left home when I was 17. Came for visits and such. See, my mom was so obsessed with my dad she let her kids suffer a lot of unnecessary abuse. I moved clear across the US, usually visited once a year. Fast forward 30 + years. Mom was diagnosed with AD. Dad (unknowing to us has a tumor the size of a grapefruit in his 1 remaining kidney) dad calls me and tells me about mom says he's tired and needs help... what do I do? I help. Took me a year to wrap my life up in FL and move here... during the interim mom keeps losing more and more memories, but dad keeps telling her I am coming, that I will be here with her to help her (he knew he was dying) so I get here, she's no clue who I am, just thinks dad is replacing her with me.... for 6 months I was accused of being his girlfriend... I guess what I'm saying it doesn't matter if they forget you or not They'll just latch onto something else to torture you with. It's not them, it's the disease.... at times I think it IS them and the DISEASE just makes their personality intensify.

This is going to sound horrible,I do feel bad when I read posts on here that someones loved one has passed away, and some take it very hard, I feel bad that they feel bad,However, I also envy them,I guess I am just another "twisted sister"

lol, whenever I read or hear on the news about how an elderly so-and-so passed away "suddenly" or "after a brief hospital stay", I think how lucky their families are. Twisted, but true.

Joanna56 I know what you mean. I could just scream when some health care person says how lucky I am to still have my mother and then I find out theirs has been dead for years and they never had to care for them in their house, how nice for them.

Makes sense to me, Tex, how you feel. My mother was never intentionally abusive, but even so when I find her exasperating I do the 'pretend she's somebody else's mother' thing just to help myself be kind and pleasant to her. So I can perfectly see how your life will be simpler when you're looking after, essentially, a human goldfish.

But at some point you will need to grieve, whether for your actual mother or for the other mother that you should have had and didn't. Go easy on yourself, won't you.

My MIL is more of a shell now and it is definitely easier. Less personal in every way

I can relate to all of these posts. When my mother passed away in January it was a blessing for both of us. We were both out of our pain. I still have to contend with my father though. he will be 90 in August. His mind is going but he is still in great physical condition for his age. If one more health care professional tells me how lucky I am that he is in such good shape and how nice that he will be around for a while. Emjo's post terrifies me. If he lives to 103 I have 13 more years.

That makes sense to me. Right now I'm dealing with my mom, who is confused but still knows everything better, and on top of that she's extremely hostile to me because she's hostile to everyone in her family. She's nicer and more cooperative to strangers, and yet when I'm around I get accused of stealing, plotting, ignoring, abusing and so on. If there were some kind of erase history where I could just be someone who takes her to the doctor or the grocery store and not just be a ride to the tobacco store or someone to complain to about how horrible everything is, I think our relationship would be a lot nicer. I honestly can't remember the last time I haven't been accused of something or insulted, so yes, losing that angry baggage would be wonderful. At this point I'd love to have three months of a lady who is happy to see me than another 2, 5, 10 years of someone who hates me and the world around her.

Even as a child I remember having to pretend it was a "loving relationship". Only I knew what a sh*thead lay under her "loving" smile in public especially at "her " church.

I can relate, Tex. I have had the feeling of visiting some old lady for ages. I reject the hearts and flowers routine; the pretense of a loving relationship feels like a betrayal of my earlier self, a denial of what really happened. As far as my narc mother and golden child sister are concerned, everything about my childhood was fine.

Actually the older I get, the more I realize how abnormal it was. I can't believe some of the stuff she said to me, for example, I was attacked by a man who crept through my bedroom window in my early twenties. I fought him off successfully. When I mentioned this to my mother, she said' "My, you've been getting into a lot of trouble lately." That was the end of that topic. She still does this sort of thing. I was anxious about gum surgery the next day and she said "Are you sure they aren't experimenting on you?" By now, I don't mention a lot of things and it's very much like my childhood. By age eight, I wasn't mentioning a lot of things and I was a very verbal child.

Anyway, thanks to the way she brought me up, I don't have the emotional equipment to relate to her so-called loneliness. It's not exactly loneliness in the usual sense of wanting company since all she wants to do is undermine, put down and control me. If I had complained of loneliness when I was a kid, she would have told me to stop being so silly and go and do my homework.

I guess if she forgot who I was, I would be indifferent. Well, she never knew who I was in the first place.

When mother entered psychiatric hospital she told staff she didn't want visits from family. They danced around this with me, till I asked them outright and found out. I told the staff they could be perfectly honest with me, as hearing that my mother didn't want to see me was the answer to a dream of a lifetime. Anyone with a normal or near normal childhood and relationship with their parent cannot understand that. I still do whatever I can for her, and will till she dies, as long as it does not negatively affect my health seriously, but giving up the pretense of a loving relationship is good. Right now she doesn't want to see me. Good. If she came to a point of not recognizing who I was - even better. I am quite willing to take her out for a meal or a short shopping trip, as long as her behaviour and strength allows it. To do it as a stranger or maybe an acquaintance could only improve the experience.

Amazing how strong some of them are. At 102, mother's physical condition blows them away.

Never thought bout it but, yes, I would look forward to that. If she thought I was a stranger who just came to visit she'd be pleasant, as she is to the NH staff and social worker, instead of blaming me for anything and everything and being demanding, demeaning and downright nasty.

Same here unfortunately.She is like the Terminator.

Tex, I look forward to that day too, but based on her current state, it will be a while.