Sudden Excessive Family Drama

So…As if my week hasn’t been depressing enough so far it’s been filling up with dramatic family news. First, there was the latest from my grandmother in Alabama with cancer who seems to be doing worse. Then this evening my mom texted me to tell me that my grandmother that lives up here and has cancer and was managing it well now has it in her brain. My aunt Lorrie is two months behind on her rent and is facing eviction because she can’t work, she’s developed a brain condition that makes her pass out randomly and she has another nine months or more before she can get on disability. Then my mother mentioned also this evening that my father (they’ve been divorced since I was 2 and he lives up here with my grandmother) is doing worse health-wise as well. He’s been dealing with congestive heart failure and I guess now he can barely walk with a walker. He is only 64 and has been a hardcore alcoholic most of my life.

This is a lot. A lot to think about, and a lot to deal with. I try to stay in touch with both of my grandmothers to let them know I care and I’m thinking about them. I helped my mother look up resources for Lorrie, but I feel she may need to find homes for her animals and move down to live with my mom in Mississippi before she ends up homeless. My father is a whole different story. He’s always been so awful to me, he’s never been a good parent, and he’s always been a drinker, but I’ve always tried until recently to maintain some sort of relationship with him. But lately, I haven’t wanted to. He just makes me feel bad, and he’s not my responsibility. And yet…

I will send two text messages out tomorrow. The first to my father asking him to tell me what’s going on, and the second to my grandmother, asking when is the soonest I can visit, and I’ll take it from there. Visiting her will mean visiting him. I’m a little overwhelmed by all of this right now…