Ex breaking boundaries after my Mom’s passing

Rant

Hey everyone, I (26M) posted here a few months ago so I thought I’d give a short update and share the latest drama.

TLDR: my ex (28F), who I helped through a heart yea, cheated on me with a coworker who she was hired to fill in for while he was on paternity leave. After a month or so of doing the “pick me dance” I left. This was in October-December of last year. Also in October, my mom, who had cancer for 14 years took a major downturn and was given a few months. My ex knew this when she decided to cheat.

Last weekend my mom finally passed after countless rounds of chemo, radiation, and a hospice stint. I am working through the grief, but largely comforted by the fact that she is no longer in absurd amounts of pain. It was incredibly hard near the end. I’ve seen this coming for months and to a larger extent years. I think overall I am handling that about as well as could be expected. An additional blow was my mom’s favorite singer was dolly so that hit a bit close to home.

I have had an outflowing of support from friends and family which has been invaluable. Unfortunately, I got a care package from my ex, delivered to my parents house, containing my favorite candy, a pack of mtg card, and a handwritten letter. I didn’t read the letter and basically threw the package away as soon as I realized what it was.

I am just so frustrated by my established boundary of no-contact being blown off when she deemed I was vulnerable. I have her blocked on everything, and blew her off the 1 and only time I’ve seen her in public since. Getting something like this on a normally day would have been rough enough, but the day after my mom’s passing was just too much. As soon as she heard the news she must have paid like $30 to same day ship it.

The action itself seems outwardly caring, if I got it from literally anyone else I would have been happy. But from her it feels like she still didn’t consider what I would actually want in that moment and did it to soothe her own guilt or something.

Posted Aug 27, 2026, 1:07 PM UTC

7338
Loading comments…