A woman lived a life her family did not support. She overheard her family saying unsettling things about her and contemplated excluding them from her wedding. Sometimes, choosing to lead a different life from your family can leave you isolated, which was the case for this Reddit user. To give her story a bit more context, the Original Poster (OP) explained her family dynamic and her relationship with her cousin Marie. She mentioned that her mother was one of 14 children and moved to America with her family when she was seven or eight. They came from a conservative and religious background, so much so that most of the aunts and uncles only married people from their home country.
The OP and her cousin were close as they were the only girls in their generation. The cousins were only two years apart and got all the princess treatment from the rest of the family. They each had their own special talents. Marie was a talented dancer, but Redditor always knew she was the golden child. Marie was tall, slender, and had lighter hair and skin than the OP. Regardless of this, the OP was also gifted with a singing voice. Her father took her singing classes, where she made new friends and was introduced to punk music. The OP ended up joining a punk band. “For the first time in my life, I was making friends outside of my cousins and church, and I was really having fun,” she expressed. A few years later, the OP heard that Marie had gotten married and had three children. The Redditor also moved on with her life, got married, and had one child. But the cousins both sadly ended up in abusive marriages. Marie announced to the family that she was divorcing her husband, which was a shocker to everyone, and opened up about the abuse. The OP did the same about a year later and also spoke about her painful experiences. She thought she would share the good news with her siblings in one of the weekly calls, but instead, she advised that they keep the OP’s relationship a secret because the rest of the family might believe that she deserved what happened to her in her previous marriage.