People are awful. That’s nothing new. They’re awful as kids (although more nakedly so) and they’re awful as adults. And into every life a little awful must fall. Sometimes it’s someone else being terrible, and sometimes it’s you, just dicking someone over because, well, god who knows. But you know what? People remember when they’ve been hurt. And that hurt is on vivid display in this Reddit thread about the worst thing that people ever had done to them.
Unlike other threads, which are usually pretty funny, this one exists in stark contrast to horrible bosses and terrible things people have found in their kids’ browser histories. In fact, one of the top comments is this story of a mom who royally screwed over not only her daughter but her daughter’s entire family:
My 60 year old mother in law wanted to sign her house over to us because she has no retirement and no money saved. My wife was pregnant with our second child and she told us she wanted to be a stay at home grandma. I would be coming in and paying for everything. So we sold our house, paid off our debt, and cut a check for 54,000.00 dollars to her ex husband, which paid off the house in full. Then I made 10,000.00 dollars worth of home repairs. All bills were transferred in my name. When it came to sign the deal, suddenly she didn’t want to do it. Told us she wanted things to go back to the way they were. My father in law told her well then we need to take out a home equity loan to give hen their money back. She refused. The next week she served us an eviction notice and moved her boyfriend she claimed was abusive to her back in 2 days later. She threw her own daughter, my 3 year old, and my 3 month old baby on the streets. We tried to reason with her and then she had her lawyer threaten us with a restraining order. So now I’m suing her for my money back. Luckily my father in law is on our side and we were able to stay with him for the time being.
Someone else recounted the reason they don’t speak with their sister anymore:
My sister called me bawling, told me that our mother had forced her to have an abortion that she didn’t want. I spent hours on the phone consoling her.
Of course, after that crying, screaming, suicidal-threatening, conversation I called my mother … who replied ‘What are you talking about? I saw your sister this afternoon, she’s still pregnant.’
I called my sister back, who laughed and said ‘I just wanted to see how you would react’.
HOURS of convincing her not to kill herself. Because she was bored, and wanted to see if I’d really care?We don’t talk anymore.
The kicker? It was the sister’s fifth child.
Some stories were simple but excruciatingly painful nonetheless:
During the divorce my ex-wife took both my dog and cat to the vet and had them put down.
And this one boggles the mind:
When I was 5, sitting on a bench at a lake, an adult showed up and shoved me in the water.
Sometimes the incident wasn’t even on purpose, but is terrible nonetheless:
Hit me with a car antenna, thinking it be funny to whip me with it instead hit me right in my left eye basically blinding me, and my career in the military ended…
And then there’s…this:
My ex wife stood between me and a back surgery I needed desperately. Argued with me saying that I was faking the pain and paralysis in my right leg. MRI showed that I had completely blown out my L3-S1 discs and the paralysis could be permanent. Then she yelled at me when I was going to use a cane for our anniversary trip to the library of Congress, so she took her mom and left me bedridden and agonizing for a week. And when I decided that vows be damned, I’m getting the surgery, she left me. Funny thing is our house was in her name…so I was homeless for six months, living in a shitty motel recovering from major back surgery.
And then I found out that she was cheating on me with another woman.
Sweet.
Ex husband was highly abusive and regulatly cheated on me while he locked me in our bedroom and would bring girls home. Since I was home everyone thought we had an open relationship. When I left in the muddle of the night he emptied our bank accounts and called all of my friends, family and coworkers and told them I had been cheating on him and he had kicked me out. So here I am, finally escaping an abusive marriage at midnight on a Saturday night with only a packed suitcase and every person I call refuses to take me in and my family refuses to talk to me. I have no money and no where to go and realize that I am homeless. Thankfully a waitress at my favorite restaurant agreed to meet for drinks and when she saw the suitcases she moved me into her apartment.
And this story, which defies all sorts of explanation:
I was going through chemo and had to have an upper GI to look for issues in my throat and stomach. Because I had immune system cancer I had lost my teeth and so dentures were out, weighted about 100 lbs, and bald. I come in for the procedure and was informed I was supposed to check in at the office not hospital but they would go ahead and put me in the room and let the Dr know I was there. (had not know this before coming no one told us) I waited 45 minutes for the Dr to do the procedure, he walks in and starts yelling at me about how he had already left the office because I was a no show for my appt and ranting about how put out he was to have to come back and do this, maybe he should just make me wait, on and on he ranted for about 10 minutes. My teeth werent in so I knew I couldn’t even really speak as he would never understand me, I was cold, I was sick from the chemo as I could be… and this man just berated the hell out of me because his office did not tell us we were supposed to go to the office first instead of the hospital.
It was probably the shittiest moment of my life, but the truth is I feel sorry for that man. When he dies he is going to have to experience exactly how he made me feel in his life review.
If you’re reading this and feeling upset, here’s an idea: Don’t jump out a window or cut yourself off from the world. Do something nice for yourself instead! And then do something nice for others. Research confirms that it’s helpful, and it’s probably going to make it easier for posts like to this stop existing if we just decided to be excellent to each other instead.
