Dear Annie: My mother has always been a challenging person -- very critical and negative -- but it has gotten worse since my father passed in 2019. I have an older brother who abused me since childhood and then disowned my mother when she wouldn’t give him control of all her money. Now I’m all she has.

She refuses to go out, meet people, etc. She calls me 10-20 times a day and every conversation is a litany of complaints and criticisms. I tell her frequently that I can’t stand all the negativity, but instead of making an effort to stop, she plays the guilt card and tells me how terrible her life is and how all she does is sit alone and cry! She is turning 90 this year and is in great health after surviving Stage 4 cancer in her 60s. Thank God my father left her well taken care of. Yet, de

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