Im fed up with her stories about her family!
Shes our neighbour, cant you just listen for a little while? my husband asked.
She always says the same thing.
Emily is usually patient and collected, but she can’t manage those qualities when it comes to her neighbour, Margaret. Her husband, Richard, never really understood why. There was a time when their families got along perfectly well. Margaret is fifteen years older than Emily. When Margarets parents passed away, she and her two sisters inherited the family home in Cambridge. It looked as though everything would go smoothly because all three had agreed to sell the house and split the money equally. But, inevitably, there was a row.
Emily didnt know all the details, but her grandmother mentioned how Margaret had asked to stay on in the house for a while because shed come on hard times, promising shed buy out her sisters shares once she was back on her feet. The sisters, showing good faith, allowed her to do so and signed over their inheritance at the solicitors. What happened next, Emily could only guess at, but she strongly suspected Margaret had never paid them back.
She would regularly call on Emily and bemoan her family:
They’ve all but forgotten I exist. No calls, no letters, not a word. Nobody cares about anything except the money.
Well, of course you said youd pay them back! But no, to her, everyone else is wrong, and she is the only one put-upon.
I almost picked up the phone to ring them, Margaret would go on, I cant keep up with the cost of maintaining this house by myself, surely they ought to chip in its not just mine, is it?
But didnt they say
So what if they signed it over? Its their childhood home as much as mine. It belonged to their father. Surely some part of them cares?
Perhaps they were hurt that you promised to pay them, and never did.
Firstly, it was all their idea no one forced them. Secondly, I said Id give them their share when I could, and Im simply not able to yet. It would be a shame to sell up just to pay them off. Where would I live then? Of course, no one stops to think about my situation, only their own.
Emily glanced over at her husband. His face said it all. After that, he no longer asked why his wife dreaded Margarets visits.
Its only when we truly put ourselves in someone elses shoes that we see where fairness begins and self-centredness ends; until then, we end up listening over and over to the same grievances, instead of helping each other move forward.
