Extended family siblings
Alright, I have one sister, and my relationship with her is relatively normal, at least aside from the fact that I live on the opposite side of the world from her, all the way over in Korea. My dad is an only child and my mom has a somewhat cold but normal relationship with her one brother.

So as some of you may know, I married a Korean, and she has an older brother and sister, both who are fairly normal despite what she may say about them.

So...summer 2007 my parents and sister came to Korea to meet our new in-laws, and we had a luncheon (not quite a wedding, just a luncheon with a couple speeches and toasts). My parents basically were introduced to a wall of classy looking Korean relatives all in their best suits looking fantastic. Afterwards, my mom told me "You've obviously gotten into a very classy family. Don't mess this up." What she doesn't know...is the back story behind all the people there. She doesn't know about my father-in-law's siblings.

Of course, my father-in-law's eldest brother couldn't be there. During the Korean War, he left home and headed north. They had a feeling he ended up in North Korea, but they weren't sure why, or if he had survived. During the decades of military dictatorship that the South had to endure (but it was pro-American, so it was "good"), my father-in-law had to deny that his older brother existed, or he could be tortured. Anyway, in around 2006 an intergovernmental program told him that his brother survived in North Korea and lived well into his 70s. He was dead now but had left behind a son and a daughter, now into their 40s. He even went up there and met them, and he had to give a sizeable donation to them so they could live or something.

Back to the luncheon, my father-in-law's youngest brother was there. He's a really dapper looking guy with a nice hat and nice suits. Back when he was young, there was a girl that he liked, but she already was in love with another guy. So he did the sensible thing (for South Korea circa 1960s): he raped her. Now that she was no longer innocent, she was forced to marry her rapist (my father-in-law's brother). They were married for several years, and had a son and daughter together. Then the father found out that the wife was cheating on him. With the man that she was originally in love with and wanted to marry...before she was raped. So he ruined her life (again) and alienated her children from her.

And then there's my father-in-law's sister. She's extremely messed up, and it's all due to a dude that lived 2000 years ago. Now, Christianity in Korea is not like Christianity in western culture*: Christians over here are even more immoral than normal people, more prone to corruption, proselytising, walking around with "THE END IS NIGH" placards and screaming at you with a bullhorn, telling you you'll go to Hell, etc.

So anyway, this sister was a serious Jesus vampire. Her husband was not religious, and they had one daughter together, then one son. The son caught some horrible disease on the level of leukemia when he was young. They were told there was a treatment for it that would give him a decent chance for survival. The father went to take the money out, only to find that it was gone. He quickly found that his own wife had sabotaged their son's only chance for survival. She decided that it would do more good if she donated it to some church...instead of spending it on the fucking CURE for the disease he had (I don't know the English translation for it). So yes, she basically murdered her son through religious faith. So what did the father, my father-in-law's brother-in-law, do? He converted to Christianity, the religion that had just killed his only son.

Of course my father-in-law isn't exactly a normal guy either. He spent three years in prison during the pro-American military dictatorship of the '70s/'80s for owning Communist literature. Funny family, they are.


*said for the benefit of any Christians who may be reading this so you can continue to enjoy the story. I really do think that western Christianity sucks ass too; this is just a line I use.
(racetraitor has an alibi for, Fri 26 Dec 2008, 16:40, Reply)