She was my stepsister but I don't really hold a serious grudge against her. We became step sisters when I was 7 and in second grade. I was not the hitting type as a child but I often found myself having to defend myself against her somewhat violent aggression. Other things she did was to tell people at school since we were in the same grade untrue stories about me, I didn't find out this was happening until 6th grade. Once we got to Junior HIgh we didn't see each other much so it made less difference. She did these sort of things to my mom also who was an abuser in her own right.

I hadn't thought much about her until 10 years ago when she was struggling financially and moved in with my mom and stepfather for a couple months until my mom couldn't stand her any longer and she wanted to get back to Florida anyway. My stepfather talked me into keeping her daughter for the summer which turned into 9 months so I needed to get temporary custody and was told at the time it would be an easy matter to transfer custody back to her mom but because I didn't have her mom's current phone number at the time they determined it to be desertion and finding out she had drug problems in her past they didn't want to give her daughter back to her. I told her after the first hearing to just take her because Ohio is not likely going to spend a great deal of time looking for her in Florida. She wouldn't, said she was more afraid of going to jail, her later version was she didn't want me to go to jail which wouldn't have been a big deal either. Her daughter didn't want to go back either which made the situation worse and she wouldn't say why and of course it was all my fault my stepsister told everyone.

After 2 years of feeling forced by the court to keep her daughter, I could see the same pattern of things her mom did to me happening to my son who was the same age. She would constantly hit him or start fights and when confronted he started it but I knew better and he suddenly lost all of his friends at school and was being bullied. I was always unfair even though I punished them both even knowing who the instigator was. So I decided for my sons sake I needed to find different arrangements for her daughter. She went through 2 foster homes in 6 months because of her instigating fights with the other children, some were even toddlers which made me feel a bit better that it wasn't just me. She actually ended up being adopted by a childless couple and I think she is much happier than she would have been with her mom or me because of the turmoil she caused in our household. I also had another son with Aspergers Syndrome who had little patience for her shenanigans, though she soon learned to leave him alone.

I felt guilty about this for 5 years until I finally came to the realization that it wasn't my fault she left her daughter and took so long to come back after her. Anyway, I was just hoping that maybe sharing this would make me feel a bit better. I don't hold a grudge against her because she really had a tragic life also enduring the emotional, physical, sexual abuse as children from both of our parents, well only one did the sexual abuse. My stepfather once beat her for two hours with a switch or should I say bush because she didn't come home until 1 in the morning , that was the worst beating any of us ever got. I felt like they accepted me and my siblings as family until they moved out and didn't really, her being the one who always verbalized it, her two brothers not being nearly as bad that way. I am one of the few people who help her older brother financially while he is unfairly sitting in a Texas prison for 15 years now.

She has been through three husbands and who knows how many lovers in her 56 year life. She was a drug abuser and heavy drinker of alcohol most of her adult life. I went to her funeral yesterday and it was a very nice service but I just can't shake the tragicness of it all. Also lost my real sister to alcoholism about 12 years ago, she was 48.

Hope this isn't too long, again was just hoping I might get some of this out of my system by writing this. Thanks for listening.