We've all heard the saying about how it's only in hard times you know who your real friends are. But you never realize how true it is until your friends turn out to be complete bastards. That, I've learned the hard way. I should have known, but I guess somehow I thought that saying wouldn't apply to family.

My sister has barely come to visit my dad in the last 15 months. She's barely ever called. When he was in the hospital last month, she visited after it had been two weeks. Two freaking weeks! I was at the hospital the very damn night he was admitted! Last week, when the doctor explained to us the cancer was evolving very quickly, my mother e-mailed her. My sister replied that she was going to "try" to visit, but that she probably wouldn't be able to because things were very hectic at work. She works at KFC!!!! Are you kidding me? On Thursday morning, my mom called her to tell her the bad news that her dad had passed away. "So, what are you gonna do?" my mom asked. "Well, I don't think I can come down." was the reply. So my sister hasn't come to help us out. She's been going to work as usual.

My dad's mother doesn't even know yet. Why, you ask? Oh, because today she's flying back from Greece, where she's been for two weeks, on a cruise. Yes, my dad's mother left her dying son all freaking alone for two weeks and hasn't even called. Actually, at first she planned to make my dad believe that the reason she wasn't visiting him while she was gone was that she had the flu. Crazy, ain't it? You know, I really don't care that she's gone, that she wasn't here when he died. What I hate is that her leaving hurt my dad. And he didn't need more pain. We were all pissed at my grandmother for leaving, but can you imagine what it was like for him? She's his mother, for crying out loud! There was one night he was in so much pain he actually called out to her. And she wasn't there. I can still hear him on the phone telling me he didn't think he would make it until the weekend and his mother had gone away. A mother shouldn't be so inconsiderate. She shouldn't be able to hurt her child in such a way.

When my dad died, he hadn't seen one of his daughters in a month, and he hadn't seen his mother in almost two weeks.

Wasn't the sickness enough? Wasn't the suffering enough? Wasn't it enough for him and my mom to have to go through hell for over a year? Wasn't it enough for my dad to be angry at Life and the World for the unfairness of it all? Wasn't it enough that he had to go through so much pain and finally ended up like this?