Unfiltered Story #299776

(Just over 2 years ago, our elderly neighbours who were super community orientated, got on really well with mum but also very quiet when in died. There was a brief few months of silence and emptiness when new people moved in. They parked, ONCE, in front of her driveway when she was in and since then, she’s hated them. A little over in front of our front gate? She complains, even though they’re not blocking anything. They have three vehicles, one being a work van? She complains. Kids playing in the garden? She complains. They don’t say hi to her first? She complains. She doesn’t complain to anyone important, just me. All the time. I’ll even get text messages asking what they were doing when she’s out. In the last fortnight they’ve been doing work on their house. Which, yes, she’s complained to me about. Repeatedly. Every drill noise. I can ignore most of their noises – the drill is a bit hard to block out, I won’t lie – but mum’s incessant complaining is really really grating. We are watching TV and the neighbours are doing some work – it sounds like a saw. She’s already complained most the way through this programme. We’re at the really important point where everything comes together and it’s very important to listen to, when there’s a very low, rumbling machinery noise that you can feel more than hear. Mum opens her mouth)

Me: “Oh leave them be. They had a vindaloo”

(She turns slowly to me, looking really confused and mouth still open from when she was going to complain. But she didn’t and I got to hear the quiet, important bit and understand what was going on, so woo, achievement!)