I inherited my mom’s house after she passed. It wasn’t just a building to me; it was a time capsule of her love. It’s basically my safe space, and I really wanted to keep it the way she left it.
When my brother hit a rough patch and needed somewhere to stay, I let him move in rent-free because… well, he’s my brother. The only rule was: don’t change anything.
Everything was fine at first. Then his girlfriend started showing up. At the beginning she was polite, but pretty quickly she started leaving her stuff everywhere, makeup bags, clothes, random decor pieces.
Then she crossed the line. She started redecorating. I came over to find my mom’s vintage curtains taken down and cheap beige blinds installed. She was moving my mom’s things around, adding her own aesthetic, hanging stuff on the walls without asking.
I tried being calm and telling her, “Hey, could you please not change things? This is still really personal to me.”
She literally laughed and said, “Relax, we’re basically family now!” Like I was overreacting in my own house. My brother just sat there, too afraid to upset her.
So, I took a different approach. I went home and dug out my mom’s old stationery. The next morning, I wrote a letter and said it was something my mom left behind.
I called a house meeting. “I found this in Mom’s jewelry box,” I lied, holding the paper with trembling hands.
I read it out loud. I had written that her only wish was that anything changed in the house should be discussed with me first. But I added a kicker: “And if anyone disrespects my sanctuary, I ask that my son remove them immediately, or the house be sold to charity.”
The girlfriend rolled her eyes. “Oh please, she’s dead. She doesn’t care about curtains.”
My brother stood up. The disrespect finally clicked. “She might not care, but I do,” he said, looking at the letter I had ‘found.’ “You’re disrespecting my mother’s dying wish and my sister’s generosity.”
He packed her bags that afternoon. The beige blinds are in the trash, and my mom’s curtains are back where they belong.
