Ever since we were little girls, I always saved my money and
spent it sparingly, while my sister spent all of hers and often very
foolishly. And now that we are retired,
I have enough money to take care of myself, whereas my sister, who quit working
30 years ago and lived with my parents until they passed away, has very little
and expects me to give her money whenever she needs some.
Over the past three years, we have been estranged and I have
heard from her only a few times. Four of the times were emails asking for money
totaling $30,000. Each time I have
said, “No,” as it would do no
good. She wants someone to pay her
bills and unfortunately I do not have enough money to support both of us.
At the same time, I feel bad for her and guilty that I’m not
sending her something, perhaps $50 or $100 a month. But today when I shared my feelings with a friend, she made an
interesting comment. She said, “Not to
be unkind, but think of it this way.
Imagine your sister were drowning.
You as a good sister would throw a rope to her to save her life. But the only thing that would happen is that
she would pull you into the water with her and you both would drown.” It may be a disturbing analogy, but
certainly hits the nail on the hand.
By Hannah
No comments:
Post a Comment