A woman has “refused” to take on her terminally ill sister’s children when she passes away, despite her sister begging her to, and her decision has gone viral.
In a lengthy post to Reddit, the woman revealed that her older sister, 31, has recently been diagnosed with a large brain tumour that will drastically shorten her life.
The woman’s sister has a six-year-old, a two-year-old and a newborn baby, who she claims she doesn’t have anyone other than her sister to leave them to.
Her sister asked her to be the sole carer of her children, despite her and her husband, both 25, deciding to remain child-free.
“We don’t have family, and her ex-husband wants nothing to do with the kids since she cheated on him for years with many men and they aren’t his. She doesn’t know who the dad is,” the woman explains.
The woman then goes on to list the many reasons why she told her sister “no”.
“1. Since we are both child-free it would be unfair to ask my husband to make this kind of sacrifice. We both agreed to no kids when we got married; to change something like that generally means a divorce.”
“2. I am an atheist. My sister wants me to raise them religiously and to ‘know god’ and take them to church. No.”
She goes on to say that she was never very close with her sister, due to their six-year age difference, and that the memories she has of their childhood aren’t so sweet.
“[From] the memories I do have, she was always awful to me, [and] cynical…After she moved out at 18 we haven’t talked once, besides at my parents funeral. I don’t even know her kids, let alone her,” she writes.
Unsurprisingly, her terminally ill sister did not take her refusal well.
“She cried and called me ‘awful’ but it’s my life, and ultimately I get to be selfish with it…”
“A child isn’t an 18-year commitment; it’s lifelong, and one I have decided not to take.”
The woman explains that since she told her sister “no”, she has been bombarded with vicious messages from her sister’s friends.
“Friends of hers whom I’ve never met have been reaching out to me and calling me at all hours to leave nasty voice mails.
“[They say] I need to step up as a sister, but I just feel like she’s trying to use me as her ticket out to dying and not feeling guilty,” she wrote.
The post has since gone viral on the social media website, with most commenters siding with the woman.
One person said, “I’ve worked with kids for the past 20+ years and I can tell you that one of the worst things for a kid is to be with a parent who can’t/doesn’t want to be a parent.”
Another commented, “If you don’t know these children at all, I don’t see why your sister would want you to be their guardian. How could they possibly be comfortable with you after the loss of their mother? These so-called friends of hers would be better suited if they have an established relationship with the children.”
Image credits: Getty Images
This article first appeared on OverSixty.