I was the first of my siblings to cut contact with my dad and stepmom. I had to really consider how I would feel when my dad died, if I cut contact, I didn’t want to regret it.
My stepmom was abusive and my dad always chose her over our safety.
Now all but one of my siblings have cut contact.
They tell people we ghosted them. They reach out regularly to try to contact us. I’ve realized it’s because they feel bad about themselves and it’s never about knowing us or caring about us. Half the messages they send us say stuff about how we are going to hell and we need to find Jesus.

The hardest part is explaining to people with normal families, they never understand that parents who can’t love you exist, and that a big happy reconciliation wouldn’t be a good thing.

Our library loans out state parks passes for a month so you can go to parks for free. It also loans out hiking gear, provides immigration resources, and oddly, a ukulele.

I retired early in September. I lost about 30k. I put this years Roth investment into a cd that doesn’t mature for 3 years because I knew what was coming.

It’s strange but now that I’m not working the loss bothers me less. I think I hated my job so much losing money made me feel like all that hard work and misery was futile.

Luckily, I don’t plan to live off my retirement investments for another 10 years. I reduced my cost of living by building a tiny house, and living super minimally. I live on what could qualify me for food stamps in my city. Instead I have a garden and I grow food.

I have a part time side business that pays most of my expenses and it tends to do better even with economic turmoil because it’s cheaper than buying imports. Sales are up 10% over the same time last year.

There’s a Scottish product that is similar that ships to the us. It’s called Loch. It doesn’t need proprietary washing soap. Also has a UV and produce cleaning function. I have one in my tiny house.