Posted on 09/02/2024 12:55:39 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A scathing obituary about a malignant Maine mother went viral Saturday, for both its brutal honesty and savage delivery.
Florence “Flo” Harrelson, 65, died back in February, but her obituary wasn’t published by the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel until Thursday.
That’s because Harrelson’s daughter, Christina Novak, who wrote the abrasive obituary, said she only learned her mom was dead this month. Novak noted in the obit that her mother, a former U.S. Marine who served as a Maine prison guard, died “on Feb. 22, 2024, without family by her side due to burnt bridges and a wake of destruction left in her path.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
I know a few too. Jacked their kids up even they passed on.
Yikes!
Whatever the psychological fabric of this daughter (like I’d have any idea), I still think her brief-but-scathing obit is an improvement over the super-glowing, cloying write-ups that detail all of the joy and love and light and free-spirited sense of adventure that the departed beloved pillar of community had spread around the world 24//7...
When the quiet part is that he or she was a conniving, toxic piece of work toward those who wouldn’t bow. ☹️
+1
FWIW, getting the truth out can be cathartic.
One thought that occurred to me is that of her parentage. She was told that she didn’t get abused because her brother was a boy, but I couldn’t help but wonder if there isn’t more to the story. Maybe she wasn’t her father’s daughter.
I’m sure to be attacked for that speculation, but I have read of other accounts of children who grew up in situations where they were abused and it turned out later than the mom had an affair and the child was a constant reminder of it.
She could have written a lot more and a lot worse. Whatever, she had her say.
You have no idea of her spiritual state.
Nor does being or becoming a believer automatically erase that kind of abuse and the damage done, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually, any more than becoming a believer automatically heals you of every physical affliction.
Making those kinds of judgments based on one obit is not very Christlike either.
Physician, heal thyself.
You got that right.
This obituary reads like the email that you angrily compose and then let your finger over the send button. Personally, I would have told the daughter not to hit the send button.
True; that was rather tacky. One should always keep one’s dirty laundry quiet.
Nowhere in scripture does it say that the commandment from Exodus to honor your father and mother comes with stipulations that the parents must earn that honor.
My parents were incredible people.
They were honorable, patient, loving, and kind, while still being old school. They said what they meant and meant what they said. They were fierce protectors.
If we did something wrong, they would make us answer for it.
But beat us to a pulp? Never. Sexually abuse us? Never. Be unreasonable or cruel to us? Never.
Stand by while someone messes with us? Never.
Nobody messed with my father. He had a genius level IQ (member of Mensa), was built like a linebacker, earned great money, and was typically the quiet one in the room. As an engineer, everyone came to him for help with their cars, bikes, TVs, and appliances. When he talked, the men around him shut up and listened.
My mom was the loving one. Injured animals, wounded kids, they all felt safe at our house. She would move mountains to help others.
It was a packed house for both of their wakes.
May their memory always be a blessing. What they gave you is a priceless legacy.
Yes. For those who don’t understand,
“CLOSURE.”
Nope, no red flags there.
I had a cousin who was a prison guard. He said that after a short while the Prison Guards become just as hardened and tough as the criminals they are guarding.
Thank you for that beautiful post.
“Or she was one of those actresses like my mother who put on the nice face outwards”
My mother was the same. She abused us kids, yelling and screaming at (and sometimes hitting) us kids in private, behind the closed doors of our apartment. In public she’d be on her absolute best behavior. She was so good at this madquerade, this charade, that many of her acquaintances, friends and relatives, were absolutely convinced she was a saint. Some of them cluelessly telling me how lucky I was to have such a wonderful person for my mother.
But our neighbors werent fooled. Unbeknownst to her, our neighbors all the ways up and down the block could hear her daily screaming tirades outside the four walls of our apartment. Especially during the summertime when our windows were open because we had no air conditioning.
One time i was all the way down the block from my place, hanging out with the other kids in the neighborhood. We werent doing anything in particular. Just standing around talking, when all of the sudden the sound of my mothers screaming voice filled the air. She was screaming at either my brother or sister about something or other, I couldn’t exactly make out the words.
The neighborhood kids fell on the ground laughing. Evidently this wasnt their first time they heard my mother screaming. But for me, it was a first time revelation. Up until that moment, I wasnt aware that my mothers screaming voice could be heard outside by our neighbors, let alone that far up the block.
Our neighbors would say to us kids, “boy, your mother sure does yell alot.” Indeed she did. I never heard such yelling and screaming coming from any of the other houses up and down our street. Not even once.
It was kind of bittersweet that the neighbors knew. Sweet because someone outside the family knew what a crazy, abusive loon she was. Bitter because there was nothing they could or would do to help us kids.
Disagree
God can heal and grow a child to forgive and still respect the abusive parent even if the parent never grows up and realizes their part of the issue.
Absolutely. Love your wife as Christ loves His church. My dad, a preacher, ignored that one. 😪
“How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child!”
I keep forgetting to be thankful for years of denigration and abuse.
Absolutely LOVE IT!
What a great story!
I was blessed with a mother who made bells ring when the word was spoken, but I had friends who weren’t. Nothing as bad as the stories above. Just the normal, rotten type of parent who abused one child to favor another.
But I absolutely believe there are the types of human beings out there who would be sterilized if there were a just world to protect an entire generation from trauma. Just a shame that the woman wasn’t around to read her own obit.
Go for it, girl, and get some of your own back. Love the giggles while she was writing.
Isn’t it Swallwell he posted picture of his kid’s room with the lock on the outside.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.