The new problem is there is no problem

My uncle (moms younger bro) is a real piece of work.

He's 55, never had a boss he wasn't smarter than (by his account...) And as a result has never held a real job. He's worked for himself a few times, but always lost interest or ran it into the ground before it ever became lucrative. Since his second divorce he's been living off my grandmother, who bought him a house and has been giving him $1500/mo out of my late grandfather's law enforcement pension. He managed to find a doctor and an ambulance chaser attorney to diagnose him with a 10 year old brain injury so he can collect disability. Talk to him though, and he's the smartest mother effer to ever live. He's always got the next world changing idea (but only an idea that he wants to be paid for despite lacking any know-how or ability to bring it to fruition) and he'd be a billionaire if he could find anybody that was smart enough to get it. His latest escapade is to take advantage of my grandmother's dementia, manipulating her to give him power of attorney. My mom cornered him into admitting his intent to steal her inheritance and decided to just let it go and not have him be a part of her life.

The sad part of it is that the entirety of the money he's ripping my mom off for is likely barely more than a years salary for me, but it's worth more to him than a relationship with the sister that spent her childhood shielding him from their fathers abuse. My dad did pretty well so they don't need the money; my mom feels like he's screwing me and my brother, and i hate seeing the pain she feels from her only brother being such a narcissistic prick.

Well this post aged...somehow. just got word that said uncle was found on his bed (in my grandma's house where he lives with his youngest teenage son) this afternoon, deceased. I don't know any details yet. Given his history of both mental illness and substance abuse it would surprise me a little if the cause wasn't related. I hope it wasn't, and I hope it wasn't either of his sons that found him. Not that it would have been easy for my grandmother, but her dementia is bad enough at this point that someone will probably have to remind her tomorrow what happened.

I wouldn't have thought it going back and reading this post, but i guess there's still something there for him because I still got emotional passing the news on to my wife, who was no fan of his, either.