vicarz | There may be a pattern to this after all, and I don't like my role in it

Mom reads a lot, has a good analytical mind, and tries to put evidence together logically to figure out things she observes or hears. However, since she does not get out, and her reading is extremely narrow, consisting primarily of slanted, right-wing, religious nutcases and sensational media news, she does not have a full spectrum of data from which to draw sound conclusions...She had reported that God had spoken to her the previous winter, through flashes of light, after which she had felt paralyzed. Her analysis of these events, alternatively, was that she had contracted Gullain-Barré Syndrome by taking a flu shot...It seems that there was a Communist plot hatched up by the Kennedys, somehow involving Mary Jo Kopekne, to kidnap or murder people and take over the government...

She related how she was convinced that Jose was trying to kill her. He had been visiting some time earlier and had left, but Mom was convinced she could hear him in her attic. She had come to believe that he had planted a bomb in her electric stove, so she refused to use the stove. Her delusions had something to do with the electricity in the house, so she was fearful every time she turned on a light. Mom said she had reported these events to the police, but they did not believe her...

That first night we talked for hours. She had crafted elaborate theories about the Catholics, and now blacks, and their plot to take over the government via hijacking the Democratic Convention. She told me how she had bought a newspaper advertisement for the new restaurant in town. I expressed puzzlement over this action, but she explained it all for me—the restaurant was owned by blacks. She went there to try it, and she heard other blacks, customers at the restaurant, “buzzing behind my back”. So she figured she would appease them by helping them anonymously. Go figure...to her, it was all very logical...

Thank you. There were many fun quotes in that narrative. Our writing styles are not dissimilar (except perhaps for my sloppy use of double-negatives).

My name comes from respectable middle class on one side, and political / financial power on the other. My immediate family is not doing so well it appears. I seem to match the career, athletic, financial, and mental health of my uncles and cousins more than some of the other branches.

My family is not something I'll often discuss. I may have to do damage control sooner than I was expecting, and I dread it like nothing else. Any hugs posts, personal emails, or phone calls will be met with physical violence.