Always right? So you've met her?! Not only that, she can read minds too(!) Curiously, her conclusions are always in complete contradiction to whatever the person has plainly told her. Hmmmm. Among other things, she's bought a house, moved hundreds of miles, walked away from the best job she ever had, etc. based on these delusions.

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I don't think this will be triggering. There is nothing shared that is physical or graphic or substance related. There's even a touch of humor tucked in. But for anyone who's not sure, you can skip to the part with the little violin dude.
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She didn't so much blame him for how we were (except monetarily). Just ran him down at every opportunity real or imagined. We actually had nearly no contact. She'd run off with us (younger sister and myself) when I was like 4, and cut off contact with all our relatives from his side. It was years before I realized fully the game. She controlled ALL information. It was 100% negative, wildly exaggerated or just plain BS. We had nothing to reality check with.

Big time fear monger. No matter how ridiculous. We had to do things she had failed at. Everyone was the "wrong" kind of people (she was very inclusive that way, lol). We couldn't wear the color red. To have more than the neck button on a buttoned shirt was tantamount to being a slut(!) Anyone who happened to stop to talk to someone near the corner of 2 streets? Well, we all know what THAT means(!) If you were bullied, it was your fault. You were responsible for everything, even things over which you had no control. Having given us a ride to one school event, she flipped out over our "out of control social life"(!) Hahaha. And blah blah blah.

You get the picture: a piece of work.
For all that (and much more of course), the most damaging things were two. 1) Ingraining the notion that to talk to someone or, God forbid, ask for something was to "bother" them. And 2) Soooo many times saying, "Who do you think you are?!" It was not a question.

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Kind of a depressing post!
So let's end with some funnies...

When one of my grandparents died, she was given a small table to ship to her sister. Knowing how she's always got an excuse, a relative gave her $100 dollars so that cost would not be an issue. It's been 20 years. It's still in her living room, with a $100 dollar bill taped to it.

She refused to part with an old beat up violin, insisting it was one of THE Stradivarius precious ones. (Yes, she's a hoarder. There's also a pile of tires in the living room. Very stylish! )

And my personal favorite...
When my son was little, she said there was a calculation online that would tell you exactly how tall a kid will grow up to be. She repeatedly insisted it would accurate. She was so worked up over my skepticism. "Mark my words, he'll be 5'8"!!!"

He's 6' 5". (So close! )