Thanks, Seasons.
This incident took place shortly before I learned about N-ism. I was visiting with NDoofus one evening. During the visit, she informed me that her husband was with his parents because husband's father had taken a turn for the worse. (The father-in-law had been in ill health for a long time.) At one point, during the course of the evening, the phone rang. It was NDoofus' husband informing her that his father, (her father-in-law), had just died at home and that he will stay as long as necessary to deal with the aftermath. I expected NDoofus to either cry, cut our visit short, tell her husband she was on her way to support him....SOMETHING APPROPRIATE! She just acted matter-of-fact about the situation. (It struck me as odd then but I didn't know what words to put to it.)
After she hung up the phone, she decided she wanted to watch one of her DVDs. (My gut-instinct kept telling me that something just wasn't right about the situation but I didn't know why.) After she chose which movie she wanted to watch, she expected me to set up her DVD player FOR her! (Huh?!?!?) I asked her where she keeps all the user manuals because their electronic set up is a LOT more complicated than mine and I didn't feel comfortable blindly fiddling with anything. All I got was a blank stare and a comment that her husband normally takes care of this kind of stuff FOR her. I pointed out that he is not available right now and asked, again, where the user manuals for their electronic equipment is kept. Again, the blank stare. I figured, at that point, that I was going to have to logically figure out, on my own, where the most likely place might be to store user manuals for her electronics and began to systematically search. Instead of assisting me in the search, NDoofus gets on the phone and calls her husband at his parents' home!
I was appalled!!!! Her husband's father had just died! The body is still in the house and is barely cold! And NDoofus is calling her husband, in the midst of this tragedy asking him to walk her through the DVD setup because she wants to watch a movie NOW! Even though I was across the room from where she was standing, I could hear him yelling at her through the telephone and I did NOT blame him for his reaction! After he bawled her out for her insensitivity, she hangs up the phone and complains that her husband was being "difficult"! HUH?!?!?!?
If I knew then what I know now, I would have cut and run a L-O-N-G time ago!!!!!!!
Bones
