It has been forever since I have posted, or even been here. . . I haven't attended my local meetings lately because they simply don't fit into my schedule. . . I am good about reading my literature daily, and I keep in touch with a couple member of my group

That being said I am so flipping angry I could scream. I have more than one addict in my life; I have my AH who is in recovery and doing very well, and then I have my Mother. My Mother has had a gambling addiction for 20+ years; there have been multiple bankruptcies, maxed out credit cards, loss of jobs, financial theft from family members, financial theft from employers that resulted in loss of jobs and almost jail time, criminal convictions, probation, and the list goes on. In the past year, year and a half she has begun drinking excessively with a beer most often being opened by 10 in the morning. My siblings and I recognize she has developed a drinking problem to keep her gambling problem company.

This summer my adult daughter stayed with my Mother as she took a summer job near my Mother. My daughter has had a couple of scholarships for school that are income dependent. She only works during the summer when she isn't in school, and she is the most responsible, frugal, and reliable 23 year old I have ever know. Due to her income dependent scholarships she can only have a limited amount of money and the bank, and so she keeps large amount of her assets in cash in a fire box. I voiced my concerns at the beginning of the summer regarding this, my daughter is knowledgeable about my Mothers past. My daughter assured me that is would be okay, because "Grams has never done anything like that to me", and she promised to keep the firebox locked and hidden. She kept her firebox hidden, or so she thought, but she did not keep it locked. . . and now I have a 23 year old whose entire life savings is gone. I recognize that my daughter should have been smarter than she was. I recognize that she gave her Grandmother the opportunity. But that child has worked her butt off every summer since she has been 16 years old. Since graduating from high school she has worked two  jobs every summer so she didn't have to work during the school year. She pays her own rent, pays her own cell bill, buys her own groceries and school books, has done it all without taking out and student loans, and had managed to put away $10,000 in savings. 

My Mother found my daughters firebox, and the money is gone - all of it down at god damned slot machine. I could vomit. Not only am I hurt for my daughter, but I'm angry. I know very few 23 year old's who have managed to put away that kind of money. It was her fall-back money. It was the money that was supposed to help get her from graduation this December to finding a full time job. It was the money that was supposed to be a starter egg for graduate studies. 

She's my Mother; she's the one I am supposed to be able to go to for advice and guidance in life. She is supposed to be there for my sisters and I, for our children. We are not supposed to have to be the "adults" in our relationship with her . . .  after 20+ years I'm just tired