E-Mails To Friends About The Incident, Written In First Two Months

I wrote to my friend Mike, in whom I had been confiding,

Things are at an end now with my friend and me. Mistakes were made and the wife said all sorts of angry things that showed how she REALLY feels about me. I don’t understand how somebody can be so venomous.
It also makes me wish that, knowing as he probably did how she felt, instead of making me endure the agony of constantly trying to be friendly with her when I was afraid of her temper, the years of tears over finding out she’s upset over something I thought was resolved or okay–I really wish he had just ended the friendship a few years ago.
He and Jeff had hoped to try to get things smoothed over, and told me to lie low for a few days. But she came out with such nastiness [the second e-mail she sent Jeff] that told me no, it’s time to go.
And now I feel so lonely and heartbroken, wishing I had a friend here in Fond du Lac who could take my friend’s place. Preferably a woman. 😛

I wrote to my mother,

I don’t know if [my brother or niece] has mentioned anything, since I vented about it a bit on Facebook. But things are at an end between Richard’s family and mine. I’ve told you before about the troubles I had with Tracy. They just got to a boiling point and became intolerable.
Just when I’d think everything was fine, I’d discover that she was still mad at me. She’s been snipping and snapping at me for months just for little things I wrote on Facebook, or for taking a bag of sunscreen and bugspray with me when we sat outside on Memorial Day.
I wrote an e-mail that she misunderstood and now I realize that it was easy to misunderstand (even Jeff misunderstood it), but Richard should’ve been able to explain it to her. If she had only asked, I could’ve explained it to her.
But no, she just went on a rampage and said it was time for us all to sit down and have a “conference” while she, essentially, yelled and screamed at me. She said the friendship wasn’t over, we just needed to have this conference while she said things she’d wanted to say for a long time.
So Jeff and I both said, NO. There will be no conference. This friendship is OVER.
Something about my personality must rub her the wrong way, because she says she has all these terrible grievances against me–things which are far worse than the fact that she swore at me–but I always tried to be nice to her.
I gave her things like lilies or tomatoes, said she looked pretty, invited her to come over some time to watch a movie, paid her electric bill once, joked with her, laughed about husbands with her, watched her kids, told Jeff when she needed a ride because their car broke down yet again, etc.
But apparently I was just horrible to her somehow. I just don’t get it at all. Neither does Jeff, who has nearly always been there whenever I was with her.
Neither does anybody he vents about it to. They’re like, “Nyssa? Why would anybody have a problem with Nyssa? She’s not offensive!” [One person was shocked that anybody would cuss at me like that.]
She blew up at me via e-mail and told me not to go “crying to Jeff,” told Jeff about it, he tried to calm her down and make apologies and stuff (since I was advised to lie low), she got even worse. In the end, Jeff and I looked at each other and decided simultaneously, we can’t do this anymore.
We’re both heartbroken, me because I lost my best friend (Richard) after all the effort I’ve put into this friendship, Jeff because he thought our friendship was worth far more than to just let us walk away.
What did Tracy say when Jeff went over to tell them it was over and get some books I lent Richard? “Give him the books so we can get back to our movie.” ?!?!?!?!
We’re not the first friends she’s driven off. We’re not even the second. We wonder how long it’ll be before Richard realizes that she’s driving his friends away left and right. They’ve only been married for several years and this has happened.
We’re going to miss the girls. Our son probably will, too. He’s always loved playing with them and making them little presents.
I’m heartbroken that Richard would let her get like this with me, that he keeps letting her drive off his friends.
I thought our friendship meant more to him than that. He once said I was the most awesome person he knew.
But he just let his wife turn into a shrew and drive me away. While he enabled it and listened to her and just would not listen to me.
Because of friend loyalty I didn’t want to breathe a word of this to anyone besides Jeff, before. But they are FILTHY housekeepers.
Every time I went over there, I had to clean the bathroom floor and toilet seat and part of the toilet before I could even go to the bathroom!
[Jeff saw the filth, too, and made sure to never sit down when he used their toilet.]
And there was no wastebasket in there [to throw away the filthy paper after I cleaned the toilet seat, so I had to flush it].
And when her mother (who’s worse than her, I hear) [that refers to the BPD] comes over to visit and starts cleaning the filth, they get furious with her.
And the way Tracy treats those kids and Richard is just terrible. I won’t be calling social services because that would just be vindictive. But I am glad to not be dealing with THAT anymore….
Imagine what it was like for me trying to keep the mess at bay while they were here, while they just let their clothes pile up on the floor despite the clothes basket I bought.
It took me at least a week to clean up the house after they left. And a cockroach came along with them. Fortunately, the cockroach has long since disappeared.
Her family is so screwed up that I wonder if there’s something wrong with [Tracy] mentally.
[Her mother had mental problems, and I did not yet know about narcissist and borderline personality disorders, which would both explain Tracy’s behavior.]
Based on what she wrote on her Facebook page right before I deleted and blocked her from my friends list, she’s probably feeling absolutely wonderful and telling her family how she finally said things that “needed to be said.”
Yeah, whatever, lady. And now you’re alone without the friends who would do anything for your family and once moved heaven and earth to [get money we didn’t have, to do a thing, that prevented catastrophe in her family].
I’m without a best friend in Fond du Lac now, and that’s lonely. But we’re trying to reconnect with some people so we won’t be lonely for long.
Catherine’s husband has crazy work schedules, which is the only reason we don’t see them much, since it’s hard to accommodate them with a young child who needs an 8:30 bedtime. We’re trying to see them again.
And my friend Mike still e-mails me and chats with me on Facebook. Clarissa and Astrid sometimes do as well. Sharon doesn’t have Internet, so she rarely shows up, but we were supposed to be getting together this summer. I thought Richard was my bestest friend ever (besides Jeff, of course), but I guess these are far better.
Jeff is very supportive–well, heck, we’re going through this together….
Richard would tell me that screaming at kids is necessary, but his kids don’t even do housework when they’re told. Our son needs only a list of chores written on a little slate each morning, and off he goes to do them.
So our household is nice and peaceful, and we’re leaning on each other through this.