Evil Grandparents

Yea, Yea It's Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and all that but instead of coming back to this page with wonderful praises to write about the holiday festivities, I have come with a heart full of anger. I have long known that my maternal grandparents are less than perfect; but, before this holiday, I had never thought of them as evil. Jealousy, bitterness, and overall hard-heartedness have turned them into evil people. The things they said to their daughter, my mother, are despicable! "You are jealous of me because my husband is still alive." "You are a terrible daughter because you have adopted your dead husband's (married for 30 years) father as your own father." "You are a terrible mother because your children are not living good Christian lives." "Your husband was a liberal!" (This led to liberal children which led to us not living Christian lives, according to my loving grandmother.) I am so proud of my mother, widowed now for 8 years, for not engaging her mother in this evil discourse and for not apologizing for loving her husband, her children or her father-in-law. She did not bite back. She simply left the next day, a day earlier than planned, which was statement enough that what she had endured the night before was intolerable. Now, my hope is that she can figure out how to come to peace with parents that cannot or will not ever approve of her or the ones/things she holds most dear. I am still reeling from the shock that such ugliness could be unleashed by two people that are supposed to love her and, consequently, me. Mom is very concerned about how to hold to the commandment "honor your father and mother" while communicating to them that their behavior and their sentiments are not just ugly, but evil. I will have to think on that.