A death in the family can bring about a lot of emotions, such as happiness that you got to spend a life with someone — and also great sadness that the person is now gone.
Depending on the person in question, there are plenty of other emotions people can feel, too. One man recently took to Reddit to share that his grandfather's funeral prompted a wave of emotions that reverberated throughout his family — though probably not for the reasons you might think.
It turns out that his grandfather was married once before his grandmother, and the children from that marriage showed up at the funeral. The problem? They weren't on speaking terms with anyone else there.
The man writes that his grandfather ended his first marriage after 18 years.
"My grandfather passed away at the age of 97. 56 of those years were spent married to my grandmother (90f). Before that, my grandfather had a first marriage to another woman, and from that union a pair of twins, Steven and Shawn (both 77m), were born. My grandfather and his first wife divorced when the twins turned 18."
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His twin sons were not accepting of his second wife.
"My grandfather met my grandmother 3 years after her divorce. From the beginning of their relationship, neither of the twins accepted my grandmother. When my grandmother and grandfather got married, Steven and Shawn cut off permanent contact with my grandfather. He always made attempts to contact them, but the twins always rejected him."
So when they showed up, he didn't let them in.
"My grandfather's funeral was held yesterday. My grandmother was inconsolable and the whole family absolutely destroyed. I (19m) was in charge of, so to speak, the 'door security,' as the funeral home did not provide one."
And he didn't let in their family members.
"To my utter surprise, Steve and Shawn showed up at the funeral with ALL of their families (wives, children, and grandchildren). Neither my family nor I know any of these people, except for the twins. They showed up and asked to please be allowed to come inside, but I didn't let them pass since my grandmother was inside."
He has a few good reasons why.
The grandson also shared his reasons for not letting the twins and their family in:
"The twins treated my grandmother horrible, and their absence tortured my grandfather all his life. My granmother also resents herself terribly, since she thinks she is the reason why the twins went no contact with grandpa. I know that if my grandma went to see the twins, she would be absolutely devastated."
"I don't think that someone who hasn't talked to my grandfather for more than half a century has the right to say goodbye to him."
The grandson did try to figure out a way to make it work.
"I offered to call them when my grandma left the place so they could pay their respects, but they refused. I also told them that if they could wait a few hours until most of the people left, I would let them come in, but they refused anyway, they wanted to go inside now. In the end, they ended up leaving the place incredibly angry and super mad at me since I woudn't budge."
Now the family of the twins is really mad.
"Somehow the twin's family found my social media, and now their children and grandchildren keep sending me messages about how I denied the twins the opportunity to 'make up for their mistake' and say goodbye to 'the person they love the most.'"
But his family is defending the boy's actions.
"My father and uncle thanked me for trying to protect my grandmother and they say they will defend me from anyone who speaks ill of my actions, but the messages from the twins' family really cut deep into me."
However, the grandson isn't sure he did the right thing.
Even though his family supports him, the grandson isn't sure his actions were for the best. So now he's asking Reddit what they think — and of course, Reddit has a lot to say.
The first comment is a gem.
From the beginning, readers on Reddit were with the grandson. One commenter said, "As much as they have some 'right' to pay their respect to their father, say goodbye, etc, YOU OFFERED IT TO THEM. You didn't offer it to them on their terms, but we don't negotiate with terrorists."
However ... the post raised some questions.
Some people couldn't get past the fact that the family felt someone should be stationed at the door in the first place. "Why does the funeral of a 90 something year old man need a bouncer?" one commenter asked. "That right there seems really suspicious to me. I've been to many funerals and not one required door security. Were you all looking for a fight?"
There could be something else going on here.
As another commenter noted, it's possible the twins showed up for other reasons: "You don’t make up for a lifetime of neglect AFTER someone dies. Hate to say it, but I think they may be sniffing around to see if your grandfather left hem anything in his will."
These stories are based on posts found on Reddit. Reddit is a user-generated social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website where registered members submit content to the site and can up- or down-vote the content. The accuracy and authenticity of each story cannot be confirmed by our staff.
