{"id":5544,"date":"2025-08-24T15:34:21","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T15:34:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/?p=5544"},"modified":"2025-08-24T15:34:21","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T15:34:21","slug":"my-terminally-ill-mother-wanted-to-move-in-but-i-said-no-she-left-me-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/?p=5544","title":{"rendered":"My Terminally Ill Mother Wanted to Move In, but I Said No \u2014 She Left Me First"},"content":{"rendered":"

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My estranged mother, terminally ill, unexpectedly asked to move back into my home. I refused\u2014”You didn\u2019t raise me.” “You left.” She cried, saying I\u2019m her only child.<\/p>\n

Then yesterday, the police arrived. A neighbor had found her unresponsive on my front steps, suitcases beside her. She\u2019d collapsed\u2014possibly from fatigue or skipping her meds. Now she’s hospitalized. They asked if I\u2019m her emergency contact; I said no.<\/p>\n

I feel guilty\u2014but I\u2019ve grieved for the mother I never had longer than most grieve someone lost. I can\u2019t welcome back someone who abandoned me first. Does that make me heartless?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  My estranged mother, terminally ill, unexpectedly asked to move back into my home. I refused\u2014”You didn\u2019t raise me.” “You left.” She cried, saying I\u2019m […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5544"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5545,"href":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5544\/revisions\/5545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepatswalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}