Do you know anyone with zero living relatives?

[NHdisneylover]

One of my son's friends is a refugee who lost his entire family either before or while making his way to safety. Sweet "kid" . We try to include him in a family dinner at least once a month.

 

[MamaLema]

I am an only child
My mom is an only child
My grandma was an only child, passed now

I have always wondered what it would be like to have cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews or siblings.

If I die before my mom, she will have no living relatives

 

[usnuzuloose]

I have no idea if there is anyone else is living or not. I know it sounds strange, but I really don't

 

[LAB81018]

I have my mother, who is in a nursing home, her sister and her son and his family. My aunt and cousin live a couple of states away.

Otherwise, I have cousins on my father's side who I am not close with, actually most of them were around my father's age.

 

[Lilacs4Me]

I knew a lady once - she was the mom of a little 3 year old in my preschool class.

She did have him, her son, as a living relative, bu that was it. She was only about 35 years old, and her mother had died when she was a child, her dad had died of cancer, and 6 months later her husband died from an illness (not sure what, I didn't want to ask!). No other relatives or siblings - just her and her little boy.

I still think about them and wonder how they are doing. The little boy would be a sophomore or junior (can't quite remember the year, but I do know he was slightly younger than DS17) in high school by now. I hope they are doing well!

 

[ronandannette]

My neighbor doesn't have any I've been her neighbor for 25 years. Never said too much as she kept to herself and really didn't care for anyone and was rather mean to all of us who lived around her. My DH would always snow plow her driveway over the years and I always would wave going by or stop and say hi if she was out when I took my walks. She took ill just over a month ago. I knew something wasn't right and went to her house to check. She wasn't good. I called 911 and the day after when I went to check on her at the hospital I became her POA for medical and financial. Talk about a shock. I just couldn't leave her and let the hospital case manager take over it. So for the next 3 weeks I spent days there and I cared for her 2 dogs. In that little time we got to know each other so well. I got a call from the doctor saying he thought her time has come so I rushed down and spent 3 hours that night in her room. We laughed, I cried, and we had a great time. She never thought she was going to die....but she did earlier this month.

So now I've become her Special Administrator to her estate. She didn't have much of anything. Left her small home to charity. I'm in the process of going through her things, donating what I can.

I don't know what it is but I just want to make sure everything is done correctly for her. To honor someone I really don't know. What I do know is she is happy now and in a much better place with lots of love.

Amazing - God bless you! I'm ashamed to admit I don't know my neighbours well enough to have any idea what's going on in their lives - our own days rush by in a whirlwind of people and activities. How many isolated, hurting people are right within an arms-length but we never reach them? Your story is humbling.

 

[Snowflakey]

Amazing - God bless you! I'm ashamed to admit I don't know my neighbours well enough to have any idea what's going on in their lives - our own days rush by in a whirlwind of people and activities. How many isolated, hurting people are right within an arms-length but we never reach them? Your story is humbling.

Oh thank you - that is so kind. I was like you and really didn't know much of anything about her. But one thing I did know was I couldn't let her go through whatever was about to happen alone. I'm thankful for the time we had.

 

[tvguy]

I knew a lady once - she was the mom of a little 3 year old in my preschool class.

She did have him, her son, as a living relative, bu that was it. She was only about 35 years old, and her mother had died when she was a child, her dad had died of cancer, and 6 months later her husband died from an illness (not sure what, I didn't want to ask!). No other relatives or siblings - just her and her little boy.

I still think about them and wonder how they are doing. The little boy would be a sophomore or junior (can't quite remember the year, but I do know he was slightly younger than DS17) in high school by now. I hope they are doing well!

Only slightly off topic.......this kind of points out why everyone needs to have an estate plan, and if you have a minor child, even if both parents are alive, SOMEONE needs to be designated as a guardian in case something happens to the parent/parents.

 

[GreatLakes]

I can see not having any close relatives, or even relatives you know about, but if you go back far enough in your family tree and then follow a different fork I'd imagine everyone has someone that is related to them alive. One branch of my family has traced itself back a little over 300 years and there are literally thousands of people I'm related to if each fork follows a similar trajectory to the one I'm on. I will almost certainly never meet any of them but they are related to me, even if just through a relative that died in the 1800s.

 

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

I think there's a difference between literally having no living relatives and not having any you are in contact with at all. For many there could be a second cousin, great nephew, etc...just they or their family lost touch many years ago so they may not even be aware of their existence.

I lost touch with my family many years ago. So I'm sure I have living relatives from a literal standpoint, but practically speaking it's just me.

Exactly.

My parents are gone. I have a sister that I speak to, but I only see once every 10 years or so.

I don't have contact with anyone else. But I have cousins and one living aunt.

 

[Kitty 34]

My DH isn't totally alone (esp counting my side of his inlaws) but he has no parents or siblings left and just some distant cousins that he never sees.