Uninvited--A Wonderful "Witness"

by Merry Magdalene 64 Replies latest jw experiences

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  Merry Magdalene

  I attended my mother's memorial at the Kingdom Hall Saturday afternoon. Even with the JW sermon tagged on, my cousin did a lovely service for her

  There were many JWs and non-JWs in attendence. At the end he said everyone was welcome to gather at a certain private home afterward. What he should have said was everyone except her only child, only he didn't know that yet himself.

  Everyone was very loving toward me, embracing me, teary-eyed, asking if I would be at the gathering and glad when I said yes. I knew the shunning would go back in effect afterward, but was under the impression that it had been temporarily suspended so that we could reminisce about my mom and what she had meant to us, I could tell them about her last days and so on.

  But then the Presiding overseer gently informed me that it would be better that I not attend since it wasn't just a family gathering but a congregational one as well. It was the strangest feeling...like the surprise of someone smiling at you, eyes filled with compassion, and then suddenly sticking a knife in your gut.

  I went outside and told my non-JW half-brothers, whom I had talked into going to the gathering with me, that I had just been uninvited, and explained why. They were shocked for a moment. One's wife siad, "That's not very Christian!" then I said, wanna go do something else? They said hell yeah, cold beer and a hot beach.

  But before we did that we went to a small alternate gathering of my father's family, and my JW uncle stuck by me. When I thought I was going to the 1st larger gathering, he said that he would go to that one also, and when I was uninvited he said he would go to the other with me.

  I thought I would hear from my mother's family after it was all over but I haven't. They probably think I'm childish for not sticking around to have my pic taken with them after I got stabbed.And I wonder what everyone else thought when I wasn't there after saying I would be. Did anyone tell them the truth--that I had been officially uninvited? Or do they think I blew them off of my own accord?

  Ah well...

  ~Merry
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  Warlock

  Merry,

  THAT.............is the cruelest thing I have ever read on this board.

  You have my heartfelt sympathy and who the hell cares what anyone thinks about what you did or did not do.

  Warlock
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  carla

  I'm so sorry you had to go through that at your own mothers funeral!! The disgusting behavior of jw's never ceases to amaze me.
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  Devilsnok

  Why did you allow the P.O to dictate to you where you go? I'd have told him to get stuffed, it was your MOTHER!
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  Pleasuredome

  i would have brought your half-brothers and their family to the PO so that he could explain to them why you had been uninvited. that would have showed him up. then i would have told him to go and **** himself.
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  Merry Magdalene

  Thank you, Warlock! But if this is the cruelest thing you've read here, do keep reading...I think this is pretty mild in comparison with many others I have read here in the last few years

  My sympathy to everyone else who has been similarly stabbed, and those who've even had the knife twisted a few times for good measure.

  It's good to be free.

  ~Merry
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  lisavegas420

  and

  stupid people.

  lisa
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  Merry Magdalene

  i would have brought your half-brothers and their family to the PO so that he could explain to them why you had been uninvited.

  What a great idea! If only I had been thinking more clearly...

  ~Merry
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  BizzyBee

  
  
  
  JW uncle told my ex-JW mom (his sister) that she "would not be welcome" at their mother's memorial. Fiesty thing that I am, I went. All my relatives treated me with obvious disdain - well, they shunned me.

  Sad for you Merry - funerals serve an important function to the living, otherwise human beings throughout history would not have these rituals. Sorry your experience was cruelly incomplete.
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  parakeet

  Merry,
  Again, my condolences on your mother's death and now the heartless treatment of you by the JWs. I've already decided not to attend my JW parents' funerals when they happen. Your story and others' here have convinced me that putting myself at their mercy at such a terrible personal time will only increase my pain. I respect your decision to get away from them and commemorate your mother's life in your own way.
  Your uncle sounds like a champ! It must be very difficult for decent JWs like him to reconcile their own loving natures with the WTS's soulless policies.