You are so right Beth. And I don't like her either. Actually, I hate her. Sorry, I know she's 'ill' and all, but jeez. She is the epitome of how NOT to be a good mother! What she's done to this child is inexcusable, evil, cruel, despicable. And, we have not heard a word from her since she received her letter. I have to say I'm surprised, because I know for a fact that if one of my kids was so pissed at me that they wrote me a 'goodbye mum' letter, I'd be straight over to speak to them, heart to heart, cards on the table. No way would I just not do anything. We were talking about it today, my husband and I, and discussed that we reckon she hasn't said anything because she cannot deny her drinking anymore. Each time SD has confronted her about her drinking, she's said she doesn't drink, has sworn on her children's lives she doesn't drink. Now there are hair strand test results which categorically refute that, and we think that she knows if she did come to see her daughter to talk, she wouldn't be able to tell her she doesn't drink, and she clearly doesn't want to admit, face to face that she does, so she's staying away. In some ways I guess it's a good thing, but in others it's causing SD to think that her mum really doesn't care about her. I do believe that somewhere in that woman IS love for her children, but because the drink is all consuming and all powerful in her life, they cannot come first, ever, or until she realises her problem and deals with it.
If she had topped herself, we would know by now, and I think that if she was going to do it it would have been when she got the letter, as a kind of 'I'll show you' action, knee-jerk to the spite spat at her from her own flesh and blood, spite she truly deserves, but she'll never see that.
SD seems okay. She has asked, every day, if there's anything in the mail from her mum, so she is hoping her mum will contact her. Poor kid.