My mom slowly unravelling due to mental illness. She has schitzophrenia and it kind of seemed to emerge out of nowhere when I was graduating from high school.

My parents got divorced because my mom wouldn't stop being awful to my dad, and my dad got custody of my little sister because my mom wouldn't take care of my sister like a normal person, i.e. she wouldn't let my sister use running water in the house because she was convinced my dad had poisoned it.

One time around Christmas my sister (about 9-10 years old at the time) was sitting on a chair waiting by the door at my dad's place in her snow suit. She was waiting for my mom to come pick her up because they had made plans. My sister was holding a bunch of wrapped Christmas presents she wanted to give to my mom. And she waited and waited. My mom didn't bother showing up, and she didn't answer her phone.

Seeing my little sister's disappointment broke my heart that day, and every day since.

It's hard to feel both love for my mom and hate/anger/resentment toward her because she completely fell apart and doesn't seem to care about how her actions impact others any more. I get that it's the illness and not her, but it isn't easy to separate the two.