Family - part 12 secrets revealed

My brother gave me a pretty hard time over dinner about not seeing my family enough. He said it would make them happy if I went to visit more often. I said it would not make me happy and I have to do what's best for me. He kept pushing it....till his girlfriend pointed out how stressed out and uptight he gets after being around my family for more than a few hours at a time. "...And therein lies the reason I choose to stay away...".

Things I found out over a risotto....

• Sister #2's new boyfriend (the one in the navy who she's moving to the other side of the country with) is apparently controlling and manipulative and went as far as saying that if my sister's son (age 11? 12?) misbehaved, he would send him to boarding school or military school. My brother's girlfriend was seriously unimpressed and called him on it. My sister #2 sat there and said nothing. That alone has me concerned.
  
  
• Sister #1 is the lying one who's always coming up with some terminal illness she supposedly has. Her daughter, my niece, lives in Italy with her family (best place for her, if you ask me). Sister #1 disappeared for a number of months a while ago. Prior to that, she and her bf went to visit my niece and hired a car with my niece's credit card. She didn't take the car back and instead disappeared and the only way my niece could find out where she was, was to call the bank and ask where sister #1's ATM card had last been used. She finds out it was used in Barcelona. This is after the car company say the car needs to be returned and the bill paid or my niece would be going to jail for theft. My niece and her husband drove from Florence to Barcelona (!!!) and went walking the streets to find my sister and her stupid boyfriend. Once they found them, bf got mad at niece's husband. Husband eventually footed the bill. Sister #1 and boyfriend were/are unremorseful.
  
  
• Brother's girlfriend told me of a 2 page letter my mum sent my brother for his 30th birthday. It told all about how awful dad was and how he wasn't there for my brother's birth and a bunch of other stuff. This upset brother's girlfriend to the point where she started to doubt my dad. Next time they were talking, she asked dad, who was upset that mum had blatently lied and explained that he was in fact there for both our births.
  
  
• Sister #3 calls my brother in tears, complaining about mum.
  
  
• Mum continues to bail out sister #1 financially, knowing all the things she's done, because she's her baby, her first born, she's special. She's 46!!!
  
  
• Mum and brother own a house together. Brother has told mum in no uncertain terms that sister #1 will never, ever be allowed to live in that house, no matter what.
  
  
• I have a lot of resentment about our childhood and question why nobody (sisters #1-3 and others) did anything to remove me and my brother from the environment we were in. Instead they all just moved away and pretended nothing was wrong. I found out my brother also has the same resentments. I always figured he did. I just hadn't heard it before.
  
  
• There's more, but that's enough for now, don'tcha think!
  

Sigh....no wonder I'm stressed this week....