One's Obsession with Oneself

Peggy was a train wreck. She was in her mid – eighties. Her knees hurt all the time and her memory was going. Not that she would admit that, because she was too proud. She was four feet tall and felt that the world owed her because she was old and had had a hard life. She especially felt that, for some reason, her daughter owed her everything.

         One day, a tragic thing happened. There was a major hurricane in their area. Peggy’s daughter snatched her up and they evacuated. Luckily, Peggy's house didn’t receive any damage from that storm, but her daughter’s had. The power remained out, however, so Peggy couldn’t go home. 

         Six weeks later, another hurricane struck their area. This time, Peggy’s house received serious damage in the form of flooding. Now came the hard part, the part her daughter had already been through with her own home. It was time to pack what was salvageable and throw out what wasn’t. 

         Peggy’s grandson, who lived with her, and a couple of his friends attempted to help out with this process a couple of times. However, Peggy, who always says that she can’t get any help, chose to yell at the friends who were trying to help her. Eventually, they stopped coming to help. Even her grandson refused to do anymore to help. This was because Peggy had developed an obsession.

         Peggy had become obsessed with keeping literally everything that was in her home, no matter how long it sat in the water. She had an electric lawnmower that sat in over two feet of water. Her response was ‘keep it’. Her twenty year old refrigerator, keep it. Craft kits from bottom drawers and shelves, keep them. Books with mold growing on them, keep them.

         Not only was she obsessed with keeping absolutely everything, she also became obsessed with how the items were packed. When her daughter went and attempted to help, she quit after two days because Peggy kept griping about the fact that she ‘had’ to repack the boxes and do ‘double the work’.

         Peggy became angry that her daughter and grandson would no longer help her. She hadn’t helped at all when her daughter had to move, but her daughter was supposed to help her. She had run off her grandson’s friends and wouldn’t listen to reason, but he was still supposed to help her. 

         She became jealous that her grandson’s friends had helped her daughter move. However, her daughter had paid and fed them, while Peggy offered nothing but a foul mood and temperament. After a couple weeks of Peggy yelling and screaming at her daughter about absolutely everything, her daughter even refused to give her rides to the store or anywhere else. This, of course, only made Peggy angrier. She even lashed out physically at her daughter, cutting her with her fingernails.

         Eventually, the strained relationship found a weakly way to move forward and Peggy’s daughter gave her a ride to her house in order for her to continue packing, but her daughter would not help anymore. 

         Peggy eventually finished packing and had to hire movers to help her with the moving of her appliances, furniture, and boxes. Again, she became angry with her daughter. This time, it was because she had to pay and her daughter, who was also on a fixed income, couldn’t pay it for her. This was typical of Peggy. 

         Peggy again began lashing out at her daughter for no other reason than that she wanted things done for her due to her unreasonable concept of the world owing her. Once more, the already strained relationship was pushed to the breaking point. 

         Peggy even went into a screaming fit about going to the store. She asked her daughter to take her and her daughter agreed. However, when her daughter told her to get into the car, she began screaming that she wasn’t a child and didn’t need to be talked to as such. Her daughter had reached her absolute limit. She told Peggy not to get in the car, but instead to go back to the apartment she was staying in, that she would not be bringing Peggy to the store. This elicited a stream of text messages (not nice ones) from Peggy. When her daughter attempted to respond, Peggy refused to answer the phone and ignored all attempts at texting.

         Peggy began to act aloof when she would see her daughter, as if she were better than her. It certainly didn’t stop her, however, from asking her daughter for everything that she could possibly fathom a need for. She wanted Tylenol, she went to her daughter. She wanted to eat, she went to her daughter. She needed clothes washed, she went to her daughter. As one can imagine, this did not help in repairing the relationship at all. In fact, what it did was to make her daughter feel even more used and abused. 

         Peggy even went so far as to basically go grocery shopping in her daughter’s kitchen. She would root around in the cabinets and fridge without permission, asking and basically just taking, whatever she wanted. This further infuriated her daughter, who was already still extremely hurt by Peggy’s behavior.

         Her mother, rather than being appreciative of all of this being allowed without conflict, still made sure to insult her daughter in every way she could possibly come up with. Eventually the day arrived when the final breaking point in the relationship occurred. 

         Peggy wanted a ride to the store. Her daughter reluctantly gave her a ride. They both went in and went their separate ways to get what they needed to get. Peggy always took her time in the store, strolling down every aisle and looking at every item. Her daughter, on the other hand, went in and got what she needed. 

         Once Peggy’s daughter was done, she went and found Peggy. She told Peggy to take her time and that she would be waiting in the car. Peggy took another hour and a half, while her daughter was left sitting in the car. When she eventually came out, she got angry that her daughter didn’t help her to put her bags in the car. Once they got back to the apartment complex that they were both staying in, Peggy’s daughter helped her to unload. 

         Peggy became angry because her daughter didn’t tell her she was done unloading and left her waiting for five minutes with the door open. When her daughter mentioned that it was better than waiting an hour and a half in the car, Peggy began screaming at her. She then came at her daughter, clawing her with her fingernails. 

         Peggy’s obsession with having everything her way and having everything done for her ended up killing the relationship between herself and her daughter - the person she had been in the closest relationship with.