There Was An "Incident" With the Mother-In-Law

Tweet

I told you a couple of weeks ago that the mother-in-law is showing signs of senility and we are concerned about her lack of good judgment, vulnerability, decision-making, driving, and independent living. Well it's finally time to do something about it. Her employer (she works 12 hours a week at a family friend's business) called us yesterday to express both frustration and concern that she is, as he put it, "losing it." We assured him that we were aware and had tried some measures that she has flat out rejected. Here's the latest of what's happened: She works at a business. An elderly widower is sort of a vendor/customer at the business. For the past year he has been "flirting" with her and visits the business on the two days a week that she works. She has not told him no. She denies giving him her phone number, but he has been calling her, so we think she did. She at first told us she wasn't interested and that he was a nuisance and we told her to tell him gently that she wasn't interested. Then a couple of weeks ago suddenly she was interested. She said she was lonely. She said even though he wasn't physically attractive to her he was a nice man and besides that he was filthy rich. We told her that money wasn't important but it was important how nice he was. She had talked before about him having a nice house (that she'd never seen) and how she wanted to see it. We told her that it would be okay to have lunch with him. So she denies making a date with him, but she did. She had several times how she wanted to see his house. So he picked her up at work at took her to his house. She now claims she never intended to go to his house. She now claims (it's a lie) that he was supposed to be taking her to go see a house for her to buy (she has no money). She now claims that while sitting on his couch talking with him, he asked her how she felt about having sex with him. He never touched her or put a move on her, he simply asked about the possibility. She was outraged and called him bad names and told him she had a gun in her purse (that's a lie) and made him take her back to her car. But wait, the story doesn't end there. She went to her workplace yesterday and complained to her "supervisor" and to Human resources and told her tale to everybody who would listen. She wanted him banned from coming to the workplace. In reality, all she had to do was go to the owner, who is a lifelong family friend, and tell him and he would have gently asked the old man to quit coming around. She doesn't understand that she is culpable. She kept engaging with him for over a year. She consensually went to his house with him. I don't know if he actually asked her about sex or not, but that's between two grown adults and not a matter for her employer to get involved in. The employer, again a lifelong family friend, called us to tell us he diffused and handled the situation, but he was understandably unhappy about the whole thing. Hubby is going to have "the talk" with his brother, who is in denial about the whole mother senility issue.