#by /u/daver3k

[prorevenge]

My aunt is a jerk, but gets her just desserts in the end

This is going to be a bit of a long one, and while I think it's worth it (or I wouldn't be posting it), I'll keep this as brief as possible. For those that just want the tl;dr I'll do my best to summarize at the end.

Back in the late 1980s my mother ("Nancy") was diagnosed with a degenerative neurological condition. My father was working long hours to put a roof over our heads and keep my mom seeing the best doctors, and eventually my parents realized that with two small kids and a body that was slowly but surely shutting down on her, she needed more help. We had an au pair for a while but it wasn't a great fit. There was talk of hiring a nursing company to provide in-home care but my mom's sister "Linda" very graciously offered to let us (my mom, my sister, and me) come live with their family, and that she would be happy to take care of her little sister. After a few months of working out the details my parents and my aunt and uncle agreed to the following:

- My dad would pay for construction of a large addition onto my aunt and uncle's home. This would be a fully separate home with three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a living room, kitchen, and an unfinished basement.

- My aunt, who was unemployed, would be the primary caretaker for my mom for the foreseeable future. My aunt claimed that she'd care for her "until one of us dies" but I think we all expected it would be more like ten or fifteen years.

- My mom would have living rights to the addition until her death.

- Upon my mother's death, our claim to the addition would be relinquished and my aunt and uncle would own it outright.

In 1990 my mom, my sister, and I moved three hours away to live with my aunt and her family. (My dad stayed behind to continue working, and this separation did eventually result in a mostly friendly divorce.) Things went well enough at first, and within six or eight months the addition was built and we moved out of their spare room and into our new home. It would be a lie to say it was "massive", but it more than doubled the size of their house. We had our own exterior doors, our own heating and cooling, most every utility. Electricity and plumbing were shared, but I think that was about it. For the first eighteen months or so, my aunt mostly held up her end of the bargain, but soon after the cracks started to form. My uncle left my aunt in early 1991. Linda started getting lazy with my mom and consequently her health was suffering, so my dad hired a home nursing outfit to come in every day and care for her. Linda took this as permission to stop helping with anything at all. Mom soon became bedridden (not my aunt's fault, the disease is terrible) and couldn't leave the home, so Linda would do mom's shopping for her... but started buying more than just my Christmas presents or our groceries. A little at first, then a lot. Eventually my mom's credit card bills really caught my dad's notice. All told, we calculated that she had run up about $20,000 USD in purchases that were for either her or her kids. (This was in the early 1990s; according to the inflation calculator I just looked at, that's the equivalent of about $40,000 USD now.) My dad was working seventy hour weeks for the overtime so he could cover his own mortgage, repaying his 401k for the loan he took out to build the addition, and these massive credit card bills. By late 1993 there was a confrontation. My dad canceled the credit cards and said "you are spending me dry, I can't have surprise bills like these any more" and my aunt in turn said "get the fuck out of my house". Since it was an addition and not technically a separate home, and since my dad didn't have the money for an expensive legal battle, there was little we could do, living rights be damned.

Right at that same time, the house went into foreclosure. Linda had stopped paying the mortgage six or so months before (I'm fuzzy on this number, but it's in the ballpark) and the bank foreclosed. Linda didn't have the money to get current on the mortgage. My dad began making plans to buy the mortgage from the bank and take ownership of the whole property. Things were looking good on this front, and he told us that we'd be able to stay in our home (by this point I was twelve years old and had lots of friends, so I really did not want to move). His plan was that he would charge Linda a fair rent for her half of the house, we would continue to live in our half, and the door that connected the two halves would be forever locked, sort of like a duplex.

It's at this point that I need to introduce the last character to the story, whom I will call "Maria". Maria was the first wife of my mom's- and Linda's older brother. They had been married for a short time in the 1970s and Maria became very close with her new sisters-in-law. After she split from my uncle, she remained very friendly with both Linda's family and mine, and growing up I called her "Aunt Maria". Anyway, Linda now knows that my dad is planning on buying the house from the bank and she panics (makes sense, losing your home is scary). She calls anyone she can think of that will give her the money to get current on the mortgage, and Maria finally comes through and says "Yeah, of course I'll help you out." Linda calls my dad and gloats that she's not losing her house and reiterates that my mom, my sister, and I can move right the fuck out. My dad calls Maria and tries to convince her not to swoop in and save Linda's bacon: "a move is gonna be hard for the kids and extremely hard for Nancy, Linda has neglected Nancy and not held up her end of the bargain", etc. Maria says that she's committed to her decision. My dad gives one bit of advice that will wind up being very important: "Well then, don't just give her money to get current on her mortgage; she'll fall behind again soon enough, the house will still get foreclosed on, and you'll be out the money you gave her. Buy the mortgage from the bank instead and just charge Linda rent, that way you've at least got something for your money."

In early 1994, we move out of the addition. By early 1996, Maria rings my dad up. She did indeed buy the mortgage from the bank and now owns the property outright. Linda swore up and down that she would pay rent but lo and behold, she hasn't paid any rent over the last two years. Maria asked if my dad would be interested in buying the property from her. It was a bit of a stretch since he was paying for two homes (his, and the one I lived in with my mom and sister), but he put the money together and soon enough we owned the property in question. At this point, Linda is in touch with my dad and is no longer extremely nasty and threatening to him - she's as sweet as can be, promising that she will pay him rent and be a great tenant. My dad said "that's fine, you can rent the house, but if you miss a payment I will begin eviction proceedings immediately." They drew up a contract, signed it, and I think she made two rent payments before calling up and asking for more time. He told her "I'm sorry Linda, but if you don't have money in my hands by the due date spelled out in the contract, I am going to evict you." The date came and went, the money never showed up, and my dad gleefully began eviction proceedings. They knew my dad meant business and moved out on their own before the sheriff did it for them.

We owned the house as a rental property for several years, using the income to fund my mom's medical care. Despite being separated since 1990, my parents stayed married until 2002 so that my mom would have health insurance. My dad gave the house to my mom in the divorce settlement, and it was sold to pay for her care in a nursing facility, where she lived from 2000 until her death in 2009.

tl;dr - mom had a degenerative neurological condition, dad couldn't care for her and keep a roof over our heads, aunt offered to care for mom, dad built a large addition onto aunt's home with the understanding that we would live there (and that aunt would care for mom) until mom's death, aunt soon stopped caring for mom, aunt ran up huge bills on my mom's credit card, dad confronted aunt, aunt kicked us out, a few years later dad bought the house and kicked aunt out.

(source) story by (/u/daver3k)