Teen defies stepmom’s cruel order to erase traces of mom — goes dumpster diving to save all memories of her

Losing a parent for a kid is hard, and it takes time to overcome that loss. To deal with it, many children hold onto their parent’s mementos, keeping their memories alive. Similarly, a 17-year-old girl, u/Special-Pea-9161, decided to keep her late mother’s memorabilia with her without realizing it could spark a feud with her present family members. "My mom died when I was 10, and my dad remarried almost 3 years ago," the teen shared in her post. Moreover, her “insecure” stepmom couldn’t accept that her family was still holding on to some of those old yet cherished memories of her later mother.

The teen shared how her stepmom got mad at her dad this past month for keeping her late wife's things at their house. "He kept her engagement and wedding ring in a box, his own on a chain around his neck, my mom's postcard collection that she started as a kid, her favorite stuffy, a bottle of her perfume, her keychain, her passport holder, cooking and baking books she used to experiment with and a locket she wore all the time," she added. Meanwhile, the girl and her 20-year-old brother were the inheritors of their late mother’s jewelry and some other items she had. “They were shared between us after mom died, and they're at our aunt’s house for safekeeping,” the teen added.

However, her stepmom wanted everything that had the memories of her husband's late wife to be gone or thrown away. "My dad fought back for like a day, and then they started throwing all the stuff in garbage bags and they were brought out to the trash," the girl added. Further, when her parents weren't careful enough to look after the things inside the trash bags, she secretly took the memorabilia away and brought it to her aunt’s place to keep it safe. "It took two days for her 'dad's wife' to realize the trash was empty," she said.

“My dad's wife went crazy and said they were in the trash for a reason. I told her I wasn't letting my mom's stuff go like that. She said it didn't need to be in her house, and I said it wasn't anymore and she wouldn't need to see it. She said it was nothing but bad memories, and they didn't need to be in her and dad's marriage,” the teen explained. Additionally, she was told by her dad to return her late mom’s belongings to them, and they'd deal with it. When she refused, her stepmom took it as a sign of disrespect in her house. Even her dad said it would be dealt with. “They asked a few people if they had them, and all said no, including my brother, who considered them disgusting and didn’t want to talk to them again,” the teen claimed.

Her dad tried to convince her multiple times, yet he failed. “He said I was making it worse. My dad's wife told me she's my stepmother and more deserving of respect. I said she'll never be my stepmother; she'll never be my family; she's just my dad's insecure second wife who'll never be good enough to be seen as family by me or my brother. I told her I'm not giving them back.” The teenage girl added that her stepmom involved the police in their family feud and accused her of stealing. However, fortunately for the teen, the cops didn’t take any action on her based on stepmom’s allegations, suggesting that the memorabilia was taken from the trash.

“She (the stepmom) said I'm a thief and the most disrespectful kind there is. I told her she was nothing to me and to stop acting like she had some kind of real authority over me. My dad stopped her from taking everything I own as leverage, but he's still applying pressure,” the teen concluded by saying she was prepared to leave her house at any moment. Her post managed to draw widespread attention. u/cannibalisticego advised, “Your dad's wife is so crazy that she even went to the police. You should run as soon as you can.” “But anything of yours that you care about needs to go to your aunt’s house, as soon as possible. Stepmom will 100% take it or throw it out,” u/Same-Kangaroo-3981 chipped in.