Recently, I lost my mom, and I knew life wouldn’t be the same—but I never expected it to change this much. My name is Bella, I’m 24, and I feel like I’m losing more than one parent at once.
Not long after my mom passed, my dad remarried. He’s 59. His new wife, Lucy, is 27—closer to my age than his. Ever since, he’s been pushing me to “be friends” with her, as if grief works on a schedule.
At dinner one night, he started again, and I finally snapped. I told him she’d never be family to me. Lucy just smirked.
The next day, I walked into the living room and froze. Every photo of my mom was gone.
When I confronted Lucy, she said, “Since we’re not family, don’t expect me to treat you like one. Your mom isn’t my family either.”
I felt sick.
I told my dad, hoping he’d stand up for me. Instead, he brushed it off and said I needed to move on. He told me it was his life now and that I needed to respect his choices.
I’m trying—but I don’t know how to accept someone who erased my mom from our home and treated my grief like an inconvenience.
I don’t just feel like I lost my mother.
I feel like I’m losing my father too.
And I don’t know if setting boundaries makes me unreasonable—or just human.
