Are there family members, who kind of fell away from the family?

Some cousins I haven't had contact with in years. All 3 on my father's side and 2 of 5 on my mother's side. They don't live that far away, either. We used to have Christmas parties at one's home, but the last two years he hasn't offered to do it. At an uncle's funeral, I tried to talk to another one, but he just stared straight ahead and didn't acknowledge my presence. I can't say why they are doing this. I've not had any arguments with them. Neither attended a birthday party for my aunt back in March and one was her son!
 
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debodun said:
Some cousins I haven't had contact with in years. All 3 on my father's side and 2 of 5 on my mother's side. They don't live that far away, either. We used to have Christmas parties at one's home, but the last two years he hasn't offered to do it. At an uncle's funeral, I tried to talk to another one, but he just stared straight ahead and didn't acknowledge my presence. I can't say why they are doing this. I've not had any arguments with them. Neither attended a birthday party for my aunt back in arch and one was her son!
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It's like something is in the water the last 10 years or a fad that is horribly wrong.
 
One of my late husband's older brother just sort of faded away from the family. He was an alcoholic and eventually his wife died and his kids wouldn't have anything to do with him. He died in a nursing home somewhere and someone at the home finally tracked down the family to let them know he had been buried in a cemetery by the state.

I was contacted last year by the daughter of a boy that he had fathered out in California back in the early 1960's while serving in the Marines. Nobody knew about the child; we're not even sure he did.
 
I had a brother-in-law who stayed mad at everyone in the family, but he was weird about it. When going to visit him, he would be polite, but some days later he would mail a hate letter, letting people know what he really thought of them. Some of the family wrote him back, some didn't.

Sent me one, and I got so mad I drove over to his house to confront him. He was in there, but wouldn't answer the door. I tore it up and threw the pieces all over his front porch. I never heard from him again, and never went to see him again.
 
MACKTEXAS said:
I had a brother-in-law who stayed mad at everyone in the family, but he was weird about it. When going to visit him, he would be polite, but some days later he would mail a hate letter, letting people know what he really thought of them. Some of the family wrote him back, some didn't.

Sent me one, and I got so mad I drove over to his house to confront him. He was in there, but wouldn't answer the door. I tore it up and threw the pieces all over his front porch. I never heard from him again, and never went to see him again.
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Sometimes one just needs to know what the problem was/is, it's so cruel not to ever explain it.
 
IrishEyes said:
Sometimes one just needs to know what the problem was/is, it's so cruel not to ever explain it.
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No one in the family liked him. He passed away - I think 2 years ago or so. I posted in some other thread once that when my wife died, later on I found a whole bunch of what appeared to be greeting cards (colorful envelopes) he mailed her,that she had never opened, which I tossed, still unopened. I didn't know she had them until then. [Maybe she was afraid they contained hate letters; I'll never know.]
 
I have an older brother that I hadn't spoken to in 27 years, until just a few weeks ago. He is 16 years older than me so we really never had a sibiling bond, plus we really never lived in the same house. There was never any issues between us but after my mom passed in 1998 he simply stopped communicating, never returned calls or emails.

Anyway a few weeks ago I reached out and we had a nice chat, glad I spoke with him.
 
I hadn't thought about cousins. I have lots of them that I haven't seen in 40-50 years. Strange, because when we were growing up, we were "the cousins"-our own group in the family.
 

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