@Rosi700 - thanks for your reply. Applying my reasoning powers brings me to the following insight: We all need the warmth of satisfying human connection in our life. I have been depending on getting much of that warmth from a relationship that is basically me beating a dead horse. I have been hoping to satisfy my need for human contact that is supportive and caring by focusing heavily on a relationship where my efforts are proving futile. I've already invested much in trying to have a relationship with my sister. (Time, attention, money, general effort . . . trying to be good to her, her daughters and her grandchildren. A loving cousin of mine told me I was foolish to have gifted my sister with a large sum of money, saying: "She'ld never do that for you.", which I believed was probably true, but irrelevant because I am who I am, regardless of who my sister is.) Reason is telling me that you don't keep trying to draw from a well where your bucket keeps coming up empty. Reason is telling me that it would be wise to shift my focus onto building alternative relationships. I live in the heart of a good size city where lots of things go on that I could participate in. Reason tells me that I could invest my time and effort in that direction. While it's not automatic, it's reasonable to hope that I could build connections to others who might come to regard me in a positive way . . . and that might imbue my life with more of the human warmth that presently is lacking. Among other things, that can take a good deal of patience. But the sooner one starts . . . .

Rather than keep shedding bitter tears over what is understandably very disappointing, my attention could be turned toward investigating the huge array of options life offers to do different things. The mind can't really think about two things at the same time. Painful ruminations can be gradually crowded out by having one's attention absorbed elsewhere. Making that shift can be initially very hard, which is why people often stay rolling along in a rut that leads nowhere . . . as I have been doing.

Before strangers will seem the least bit interesting to me, I'll have to start to know them, which means showing up somewhere consistently for a while. It won't happen, while I stay home alone in my apartment, trying to mentally resurrect the ghosts of past relationships, which is what I now do with a lot of my time.

I know how to reason my way through to solutions of problems. I know that life offers options.

Thank you, @Rosi700, for taking the time to read my posts and contributing to my thread. That is very good of you.