Disfunction at its best!

So recently I've been thinking of my family (brothers and parents) and wondering how to track all this back to a cause. The cause of my family's major dysfunction. Let's start with my mother. I love her dearly and believe that she is a very strong woman despite her attempts to appear weak and vulnerable. She was born and raised in central NY in 1940. She was born to a farmer's daughter and a ladder maker's son. Now I believe that many things are hereditary. My maternal grandmother was fairly typical that I know of but she did have a sister with early onset dementia I believe. It's hard to know exactly as I was a little girl when she lost herself.

My maternal grandfather used to sell things at fleamarkets out of his gray panel van (kind of like a UPS truck but probably a 1970's version). He would buy and then sell, buy and then sell again. He had shelves in his panel van where he would store his goods in old suitcases with masking tape labels. Stacks upon stacks of them. He also had shed upon shed at his house. My grandparents had a cute little ranch style house in this little town of North Rose. My grandfather built little sheds that linked to other little connecting sheds where he stored his fleamarket goods, tools, books, tobacco, and god knows what else.

Now I don't have any real history on my father's family. I do know that his father was raised in the NYC area being the nephew of Fredrick Aldo Otto Schwarz (FAO Schwarz, you know the toy store?). His mother was born and raised in Northern Virginia. I know she was one of many children and possibly the oldest? Like I said I don't know much. Now my father never has been one for sensitive comments or actions let alone a communicator about much. He is currently very much on the surface and I believe he probably has been that way for a very long time. He seems to be cut off from reality and likes to live in a fantasy world. He was raised very wealthy and now is quite poor living off of social security and disability on like $1,000 a month.

More to come later....... time to figure out dinner and put the freshly made peach jam away!