What do you do when your family chooses to walk out of your life? How do you win them back?
In this episode of Fridays with Ferne, Ferne describes a woman named Rosa who doesn’t understand how her family walked out of her life. When Rosa’s uncle died, he chose to give his massive inheritance to only some of his nieces and nephews. Those that did not receive anything were furious. Since Rosa was the proprietor of the will, they expected her to change what her uncle wrote.
Rosa felt that not only was it not her place to do that, but it was also unethical, wrong, and straight-up illegal. When she refused to change her uncle’s will, those cousins that were once closer than siblings, cut her off. They stopped talking to her and didn’t invite her to any family events; she was ex-communicated. Rosa was heartbroken. She felt lost and alone and didn’t know how to win them back.
My first piece of advice to Rosa is to step back and give her cousins and herself room to calm down and think things through. The second piece is to help Rosa stop feeling guilty for the way she executed the will; she was just following through on her dead uncle’s last wishes and sticking to her values.
I suggest that after some time, Rosa writes a letter to her cousins telling them how she feels and that she misses them. From there, if they still don’t come back, Rosa needs to move on. She must find another source of support and leave the door open for this family if they want to come back into her life (if that’s what she wants).
What would YOU do? Let us know!
Have you found yourself in a situation like this? Do you have an interesting case you’d like to share? Let’s talk! If you want to share your experiences and/or thoughts on this episode or the show, please reach out to us!