I am trying to word this in a way that does not spark a debate because that is not my intent, so bear with me.

I was at a large extended family gathering (my nephew graduated) and a group of us were sitting around discussing names. There is a comical story about how my twins were named and hubby's sister recently adopted their second child and she was telling us how my newest nephew got his name. In any event this lead to a comment from an extended family member that has stuck as a thorn in my side and brought up old wounds.

I'm a pretty open-minded person, members of my family belong to just about every religion out there and my own philosophy is "if it works for you it can't be wrong."

To make a very long story short, I discovered when my youngest kids were about 2 that there is a family baptismal gown that has been in my husbands family for generations that was never offered to my children. In fact I discovered that my children are the only decendents of my husband's grandfather (including grandpa himself) not to be baptized in this gown. I was extremely hurt by this but it is all water under the bridge now.

Fast forward 15 years and we're at this gathering. Now my husband's parents and siblings are all familiar with my spiritual beliefs. I would even assume that the woman that made these comments would have a clue as she did attend our wedding (she by the way happens to be the guardian of the gown). Based upon these stories that we were sharing she suddenly looked at me and said she never realized that my faith was this strong yadda yadda yadda .... then "well you have to do this and that and this" (editing to prevent specific religions and beliefs to be mentioned).

I was having a good day that particular day and smiled and said "thank you for your opinion but my beliefs have worked well for me for the last 40 years so I think I'll stick with it." To which she replied then this that and the other will happen you have to do this etc etc etc. Again I smiled and said I am very comfortable with my spiritual life etc. we will have to agree to disagree and attempted to change the subject.

So here's my problem, this is my father-in-law's sister, she has decided that it is her job to "save" me and my family. On a "normal" basis I maybe have 10 conversations a year with her and it's usually "hi, how are you, how are the kids, how are the grandkids, see you next time." Since then she's taken to calling and emailing me. She even stopped by on her way through but fortunately I was at work at the time. She recruited her sister too to get into the mix. The sister is more reasonable and basically contacted me to shut her up. I asked the reasonable sister how to deal with this because I am at my wit's end, she said "oh that's just X, once she sinks her teeth in you just have to go with it."

I don't want to go with it. I don't need to be fixed and my patience are running thin! My husband and I have been together for more than 25 years, why now has she suddenly decided I'm her pet project? My husband is no help because he'd rather avoid most of them entirely, but I'm beginning to get offended!