@ Millie (and others)
"Your story was a huge help to me. Even though my experiences were different than yours, I was hurting and wondering what I could "do" about it. Should I try harder? Write a better letter to the Society? What?"
This is a reoccurring theme that you will hear again and again from surviving ex-Cult members, that of, you can never do enough, give enough, pray enough, be good enough, etc. All cults have this in common. You are NEVER good enough, and truly JW's are a "works based" religion. The instant you are not warming a KH seat and filling a KH contribution box, you are a non-existant ZERO. You "worth" is completely conditional upon your status as a cult member and perpetual giver of everything.......every last drop of life.
Millie, you are correct about the glaring contrast of how non-JW's treat people in a time of crisis versus how JW's react in a time of crisis. The day after this Elder hung up on me and couldn't be bothered, I received a phone call from my mother's co-workers (She was an RN for 30 years), who stated they had taken off work, rented a mini-van, and were driving down to visit and console my mother before she passed. My God! I was blown away.....they met with my mother, who immediately was more awake, conscious, and happy to see them, as well as comforting me and buying me lunch at the University cafeteria. (I could barely eat though). They warmed my heart with stories about her, etc. They also came to her funeral and kept in touch with me. I'll never forget that. And the JW's? Couldn't be bothered. My, what a fine "Witness" my mother's coworkers gave, vs the JW's who didn't do jack squat! That was truly the last straw for me. Until that incident, I had held out some sort of hope that maybe JW's were "the one true religion." After that treatment, I was left feeling nothing but contempt for the religion of my youth. Even UVa hotel staff who knew my situation (I was back and forth from PA to VA for 3+ months and stayed at the same UVa owned hotel) took pity on me and offered their own Christian faith to console me during different times of my stay. I feel like a complete ASS for thanking them kindly and waiving them off. (False religion, don't ya know!) So-called "wordly" people cared for me in my time of need......JW's whom we knew for 20+ years were nowhere to be found. We had similar experience with my father's illness 8 yrs prior.....that really shook my mom I can tell you. She actually bought and read Ray Franz's books before me! (though I was on the internet first)
Alive! - I (and others) know the range of emotions you are going thru.....we have been there. It's like a punch to the gut to realize you were misled by a money-grubbing Cult. Say it.......you were in a Cult! I was in a Cult! But now, we are OUT of the cult, and we are Alive! and we are not only surviving, we are striving.