WIBTAH if we leave out certain family members from a funeral?
A close family member, Shelly, passed away unexpectedly. Her bio mom & siblings have always treated her as the emotional punching bag. Shelly was blamed for things her siblings did, had permanent damage from her step father hitting her, inappropriately touched by bio mom's boyfriend. Bio mom chose the boyfriend. She asked him if he did it & he said no so obviously it was Shelly who was lying.
Bio mom didn't pay her bills so she put utilities in Shelly's name then didn't pay those which ruined her credit rating before she ever reached adulthood.
On more than one occasion bio mom told Shelly to F off & never contact her again. Whenever these conflicts occurred the siblings were more than happy to follow bio mom's lead by texting & leaving voice mails saying really horrible things, bringing up any bad decisions from her past. Sadly Shelly always wanted her mother to love & accept her as she did with her other children which is why she would try to reach out here & there. Even when she was "accepted" back in, the same drama & chaos would start up again breaking her heart yet again. This was a pattern that had gone on for decades.
Now Shelly has passed away & bio mom et al, are wanting to take over everything for the funeral, save for the expenses, make speeches, pillage through belongings & pretend they were close loving family. Far from it. Even one sibling had the audacity to say they were always close to Shelly even during all the nastiness. That person was as bad if not worse than bio mom.
Since they no longer have Shelly to mistreat they've started in on her adult children with the same nonsense. All of them went no contact with that part of the family years ago.
Shelly's bio mom & siblings were never shut out from having some input for her funeral but they've decided to call, cry & complain they're being left out. They've even made demands for things knowing that it was never an option.
Shelly's children feel they disrespected their mother in life, now in death & have collectively decided to not announce the day of Shelly's service but will send them a link to view it online 30 minutes or so before it starts.
Given the past & present history of Shelly's bio mom & siblings, would we be the aholes for keeping this mostly to ourselves?
Posted Jun 8, 2026, 4:48 AM UTC