Sister

Two days ago my sister sent me this email:

Hello D.D.,

 It has been quite a while since I talked to you and I wasn’t quite sure where you were located until [our brother] said something about you being in [the Bermuda Triangle].  After doing a little research, I found that you were working at the [Amazon library] .  I hope you are enjoying it.

 [Our brother] recently contacted me to tell me that Dad was under hospice care and wasn’t expected to live.  It does look like he has taken a turn for the better so he may make it through the blood infection that he was battling.  I thought you should know as [our brother] thought to tell me.  I haven’t had any contact with either of them since my divorce in 1999 until recently when [our brother] did a friend request on Facebook.  It has been even longer since I have talked to you. 

 How’s life?  What have you been doing?  I see that you finished your education, great job! 

 Thanks,

 *******

She sent it to me from her work email to my work email, which makes it public record. As of this writing, I have not yet decided how I am going to respond.

When I tell people that I am not in contact with my family, they inevitably are baffled, and lecture of the need for family closeness, reconciliation, bonds. My Master's program required students to attend counseling sessions, so we could "see how it worked." My counselor suggested (though I successfully changed the subject) that I forgive my father for his actions (or non action) during/after my childhood.   Memoirs I have read, written by people who describe "difficult" childhoods, discuss their struggle to reconnect with their family and form/create new relationships with their parents in whatever way they can.

I say:

Fuck that.