Some people are just not your friend at all

I remember one who married when she was 15 and spent most of her life sheltered, raising 4 kids while her husband worked 60 hour weeks to afford such an existence. Well, when the kids grew up and left home, I guess the husband became the focus of her matriarchal fixation. It’s not uncommon that such relationships wear out at that point, especially if both partners take too much for granted. She came home one night to find him in bed with another woman. Needless to say it ended in a fist fight and immediate divorce.

I got to know her after she collected around 70 thou for half of the property. I intended it to be a casual acquaintance, nothing too involved, as it was apparent she never really learned how to interact with people outside her domestic life. She had looked me up to read her cards, but before long, it became obsessive. It was very hit and run, throwing money at me, though I refused to take it. Her attempts to make new friends never ended well because of that ugly habit of giving what SHE liked as a form of emotional blackmail, practically trying to take over your life, albeit, what you wear, eat or drink, where you should go and what to do. I would get calls in the middle of the night, demanding I do a reading because some person in her life just couldn’t take it anymore and had to tell her where to get off. When she’d come on with that “people abuse my generosity” I’d warn her that it’s not something you can enforce on people to see things your way. It is the right of every responsible adult to make their own choices, but she not only missed that lesson in life, but absolutely refused to learn it.

When I broke my ankle, she tried to exploit that in every way of imposing dependency. She dragged me to the mall in town, a place I preferred to avoid like the plague, especially on crutches. She insisted on breakfast on the gallery way up without an elevator, then argued with me over what I should eat, though I persistently warned her about my allergies. When I needed new underwear, she dragged me to the next city, parking in the middle of a huge parking lot and that in 35°C weather. She drags me into this shop that had nothing in the way of briefs. Failing that, she sits me on a stack of carpets then buggers off. After waiting a half an hour in the sweltering heat, my leg swelling up, I decided I better leave for the next store. There I found what I needed then went back to search for her but couldn’t find her, so I went back to the car. There I waited another 20 minutes in the burning sun. She finally arrives and gives me hell, though I told her I just couldn’t take the pain anymore.

At some point she realized I wasn’t buying into her dependency schemes, so she comes on to my close mate, complaining that I’m being difficult. Mind you, before long he began to feel just as cornered...and when that wasn’t enough she went and joined the Legion Branch where I was secretary, then tried to take over that show with her decorum and trinkets.

One day I had an appointment with the employment office and she insisted on driving me. I knew it would go wrong so I made alternate arrangements. It didn’t interest her that showing up late would have lost me my unemployment money. Needless to say, she went into a screaming tirade regardless, when she found out. Though we never spoke again, it didn’t stop her from trying to weave her web of influence around me.

Weeks later another friend phoned up utterly gob-smacked at the trail of hostilities this woman was leaving behind every broken relationship. I told my friend, forget it, just be glad she’s left you, because I don’t think she’ll stop until she’s landed in an institution. Not surprisingly, when I quit the legion, she disappeared into anonymity. As for the cards, I hid them away somewhere, never to be found again.