Thank you, it needs to be said

So, this is a horrible post: my mother-in-law does not use the word "thank you."  At first, I used to think it was her treatment of me and my family, but then I realized it was her.  And, it wasn't an age related thing.  It gets very easy to excuse certain behaviours with the adage "she is old."  Manners are a lifelong way of behaving; selfishness is a lifelong habit.  No one wants to say a very old woman is selfish or self-centred.  Sometimes it happens because a senior has been left too long to their own devices and forgets there is a wide world beyond their front door.  It can happen because family forgets to visit and a senior focuses solely on their own concerns and, often, it is an element of character.  I forget sometimes my mother-in-law has been an adult, a senior almost, since the day I was born and there is no excuse for her lack of manners.  I don't get mad and right now I am getting even.  Childish, eh!?  But, at her age, there is no way she is going to change.

On a tangential note: a woman, I know, recently had to go back to New Brunswick to deal with her mother who has severe dementia; there are other siblings, all residents of NB.  The mother had bedsores so badly infected they had to be operated upon; the siblings had allowed this to occur.  Now whatever flaws I may find in other people, in my mother-in-law, I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy.