A good friend of mine had a father and the father married a new wife, as he was a widow (my friend’s mother died). The new wife had an adult daughter, and the father, the new wife and the adult children all got along ok. Then, the father had a will and legal documents drawn up naming my friend as Executor and giving her authority with the legal documents. When the father became more senile with dementia, the wife and her daughter had the will changed and the other legal documents changed, so my friend had no say in anything when the father died and it was all divided up. My friend was pretty much written out of the Will. I think she got a small amount from a life insurance policy that was in her name, like 10k or something, and she felt guilty and gave half to her step mother (her father’s wife).
Years went by and she was bitter about the whole thing, and there was a rift. Recently, in the past few years, she became close again with her step mother and is going to visit and spend overnights (stepmom lives in the next state over) and going to family barbecues and stuff. She told me even though those bad things happened, she did enjoy her stepmother and she would rather live with happy feelings than bitterness. I can understand that. The stepmother also was found to have stolen from the father, by forging his signature on credit card applications and stuff, and I think that was all unpaid after he died. The stepmother now lives in a little crappy apartment and doesn’t have much except her SS but it is what it is.
The stepmother is and always was a hoarder and into decorating, and had every flat surfacec covered with crystal candlesticks, frames, doilies, the walls were all covered with crappy decorations, and the stepmother was always re-doing the decor (African theme, Victorian theme, etc.).