'I have a disease and your father is dying!'

The MIL implied to have a heart disease for many years to DH. I found out it was easily treatable high blood pressure instead, when she complained about her medication to DH. A while later, when we visited them, she started complaining again about her heart disease but then realised I knew (I told DH the combination she took wasn’t for the so called heart disease she invented, and he mentioned it to her). DH however still believed she had a heart disease and was telling her to see a cardiologist. She whispered to me, while suggesting he was a little crazy and imagining things, 'I don't have a heart disease'. Why whisper? (I now know. She wanted to keep him under the impression that she had this heart disease while telling me she knew she didn't . Working us both at the same time). Actually just recently (September 2012), she told DH she had had a heart-attack, in the hospital they had told her that she was just a bit dehydrated and that she was in good health. She however knew for sure that she had a heart-attack, she was just waiting for the lab results to prove it. Once again she had DH in rescue mode and could lean back and hear him say what she needed to do, see another doctor, go to another hospital (which she subsequently would never do).

She insinuated to have cancer. She called, on a Sunday, and soon was talking about her health. Saying she was experiencing a sudden weight loss and had no idea what the cause could be. DH started giving advice, saying she should see a doctor. (She really likes him to be in this position, she sort of leans back and enjoys). After a while, she was satisfied and said, 'Oh well, maybe this happened because I have been on a diet for the past three weeks...'.

She suggested to have Alzheimer's disease. Starting a campaign, she was forgetting things, it runs in her family. She didn't remember things she had done or said (how convenient!). Every visit or phone call she gave some hints. This one was getting so obvious that DH actually told her she didn't have Alzheimer's otherwise she wouldn't be talking about it like she did and he would have his father on the phone instead. So she stopped.

MIL let us drive for two hours believing FIL was dying. FIL was at the ICU she said and there wasn't much left they could do for him. DH thought he was going to say goodbye to his father and sat behind the wheel, hyperventilating and in a state of panic. When we arrived, MIL also happened to arrive. When we walked to the hospital entrance, MIL whispered to me (so DH couldn’t hear..). 'Oh by the way, FIL is not in the ICU anymore and he's doing really well, I spoke to him on the phone this morning'. (?!?!). Why not say it out loud, why not tell it to her son immediately. I was stunned. She had called DH earlier that morning when we were already on our way and she said : 'Maybe you shouldn't come with all this fog'. There was no fog, but not a word on his father, she didn't say 'Your father is doing well, so don't worry'. How cruel can you be to your son? She even knew the night before that her husband was doing ok, but suggested to her son his father was dying! Never mind I also happened to be pregnant and our son was just a little baby and there we were, driving for  two hours with my husband in a state of panic behind the wheel.