I met my aunt for lunch today near my office. She’s visiting for about 3.5 months and splitting her time between her friend’s house in New Jersey and her son’s apartment in Brooklyn.

My aunt has three sons – the oldest one calls her constantly, the middle one only calls her when he needs something (or is responding to her calls), and the last one complains to her as often as he can get his mother’s attention and expects her to drop her entire life to take care of his son — her grandson. She’s planning to visit her brother in the next two weeks in Boston since it’s only four hours away from here.

“It’s good to keep in contact and see family,” she said to me. That was probably an allusion to her middle child… And the fact that I told her that he doesn’t reach out to me at all, and when I send him and his wife e-mails, only his wife responds with him cc’ed. When I told her I contacted all of her sons to let them know about my engagement, she asked if he responded, and I said no. She had a “Well, I could have guessed that” look.