Three Siblings, Two Wakes and a Funeral

Mother died, leaving everything to her youngest son Gerry, who had given her nothing but grief in his adult life. Drug dealing, burglary, domestic violence and armed robbery; a synopsis of a misspent life, leaving several unsupported children en route. Her other two children were left totally bemused at this; didn’t she love them at all, or had they been so disappointing children, that she wrote a will without mentioning them?

Linda and Eddie were astounded when they read the will, to discover that they had been completely overlooked and forsaken by their mother. Meanwhile, the ‘bad egg’ now ‘top dog’ was strutting about, totally spaced out on drugs, and organising a funeral as if he was the only surviving child.

This funeral was like no other; siblings sitting apart and no exchange of the usual platitudes between siblings, like ‘we need to keep in touch and meet up more.’ The golden boy held a reception in the local social club and Linda and Eddie visited the local pub with their children and some family. Even at her funeral, mother played her children like pawns in a game of chess, rather than leaving all three feeling loved and valued, as a mother is expected to do. Linda and Eddie are left with bittersweet memories of their childhood, which was a foreshadow of what was to come in later years, and unanswered questions about this woman they called mother.