spun off answer from "replenishible thread".

[KJ]

KJ,
I believe you posted about this before, but did you ever reconcile with your mother or step father. I do think you once posted you reconciled with you mother, but never mentioned anything about your stepfather. Is your mother and stepfather still together? By the way, I do know of three similar situations that have happened.

I really didn't want to hijack the "replenishable thread", but am happy to answer, since I have talked about this situation before.

My family at the time I was kicked out was myself, my mother, my step-father and my brother (technically half brother). The worse part was the disconnect from my younger brother. I was completely estranged from all for many year, before I reconnected with my brother in his high school years via the internet.

When my brother went off to college, he started visiting me during his summer and Christmas vacation period, and after he graduated last may, he moved to Las Vegas and has lived with me since. Getting to know him again and having him a part of my life has been wonderful.

During the last year my mother has visited twice. That was more about visiting my brother than me, but it has been an opportunity to begin to repair our relationship. My step father refused to visit and actually gave my brother an ultimatum last summer threating to cut off his car insurance which he followed through on.

During her last visit, this past winter, my mother, hinted several times to both my brother and myself, that she wanted to leave my step father and relocate to Las Vegas. Again, that is much more about here baby boy than her older son. I didn't want to interfere too much, but I told her if that's what she really wanted, I would help her get set up.

She is leaving my stepfather and moving to Vegas later this month at the end of the school year (retiring). My brother is going home to help her pack and move. I think it is better that I don't participate in that. My brother and I have been looking at 55+ adult communities for her (she just turned 55) as that would be a good place for her to live and meet new people her age. We have a few decent ones picked out to show her when she arrives.

Once she arrives, it will be sort of ironic that 14 years after my stepdad kicked me out of the family, the other two family members have moved away from him, towards me. I am not proud of the fact that I feel some satisfaction in that...but I do.