My mother's side of the family were not negative until lately. My youngest sister did not want me in the house that my grandmother formerly owned. She was Mama to me because she raised me. She got reinforcements to get me out; when I left, I distanced myself from her. The sister next to me (I am 5 years, 19 days older than she is) tried to get me to make up with her. She hit a nerve when she said, "Well, you are the oldest sister" and my respyonse was that I was not going to brownnose (kiss her butt) to get along with her. I saw her at a funeral (one of my cousins had died) and she hugged me. I didn't want her touching me at all; after all, she has yet to apologize for what she did when I stayed in the house with her. I met a man (my husband) and he didn't tell me until 2 weeks after we began dating that he used to "talk" to her (meaning platonic). When my youngest sister found out, the word I got was that she wanted to slap me, and I wanted her to, because she was going to get her butt whipped that day. She tried convincing him that I would break his heart; that has not worked. In addition to that, she told people her intent was to break us up, and that did not work either. We got married 20 months ago. I have a brother in-law that got out of prison after 25 years. He told me that my youngest sister came to him and told him I told her I liked him. I was pissed because I have not spoken to her but twice in 7 years; the first time was to let her know that our uncle (my mother's youngest brother) had prostate cancer, and I could have beat her behind then because she was grinning in my husband's face. She saw the two of us in the supermarket, spoke and flew down the hall so fast the wind was blowing. His idea was to get us together, but he changed his mind. Good thing too, because I would have told her off. I ran into my sister next to me, and it turns out that our youngest sister was up to her hijinks again. My brother in-law (my sister's husband) has been talking about church since I met him years ago. He told my youngest sister she needed to stop being so hateful and go to a bible-based church. She lied to my brother, who is her defender, that my brother in-law hurt her feelings and my brother wants to beat my brother in-law. He stopped speaking to the sister next to me because, according to him, "she cannot control her husband". The silly thing is, she stuck her neck out and got him a job, where he talks to everyone but her. I told her she needs to stop worrying about grown people (both he and my youngest sister are grown; he just turned 45 yesterday and she turned 42 last month) and take care of herself. Since you brought up the subject about negative family, I wanted to give you a scenario of what I have gone through in the past 7 years. I forgave her a long time ago, but I still would rather be in the room with a rattlesnake; when he bites you, the effects are instantaneous.