Struggling mum/gran

Life can be a bugger sometimes. I am sorry to hear of the broken relationships. It can be very hard as we do become very attached to our ACs' partners.

Why might you not see your step grandson? Is his father moving far away? Can you not discuss with the child's father the possibility of keeping in touch. You love the child, and I presume he loves you.

You certainly have been through the mill this past year and that will make it harder to deal with a new disaster.

Drop the guilt - jeg already have one daughter living with you with her child, and you have no more room. Or have you? Could not the grandchildren share a room with their mothers, or the two sisters share with each other? A couple of mattresses on the living-room floor would probably accelerate your daughters' search for new accomodation!

In my candid opinion, your daughters should both have taken into consideration where and how they were going to live and support their children before divorcing /breaking up. Both ex husbands have a responsibility to their children - tell them to pull up their socks!

If your daughters cannot get mortgages, then they will just have to start looking for rented accomodation, won't they?

They are grown women who either have jobs or are claiming social security. I know the latter is impossible to live well on, and that many jobs are ill-paid, but tell them to trot down to Citizen's Advice, their unions and the local housing associations and put their names down for housing as single parents with children who are minors.

Life sometimes throws all these things at us and when it builds up like this we feel we're going under.
What gets me though these bad times (I'm not making a list, it's very long) are my friends.
Being a friend means you listen to them and having a friend means they listen to you. If it doesn't work like that then they aren't really friends.
They are your rocks so lean on them- that's my first advice.
As to your family my son had to come back to live with me when his relationship ended. There is some resentment but not too much from his sister. I do feel very guilty sometimes but you just have to make choices sometimes. They are both adults and free to make their choices too. I hope things work out for you.

I am normally the strong capable one

This is me too. I think it's hardest to accept you are struggling when you are used to pulling others through.

I have had a string of struggles in the past and sometimes just felt unbelievably sorry for myself. I don't have particularly good health at the moment and everything seems twice as difficult.

The truth is - this too will pass...
Thinking of you.