"Back in 2004, you promised that you would not put your kids thru the bitter ending that your own mother was dishing up . . . the stress and the grief . . . do you remember? Do you remember how exhausting it was just to be with her? How helpless and resentful you felt? Your mother was still alive when you wrote this, but there was very little joy or satisfaction in that . . . only a sad waiting for release . . . yours, as much as hers. This was not what she would have willingly chosen for herself, and most certainly not what she would have wished for you; but she had surrendered her reason, and you and your brothers and sisters had to deal with what was left. It split and divided you then, perhaps irrevocably.