Originally Posted by
Strakeln
I fail to understand why "my sister died at birth" yields any sympathy, true or not.
My one and only full-fledged brother (not step brother, half brother, XXXX brother) died at birth. There were lots of times when I was a kid that I wish the little a-hole hadn't done so... it would have been really nice to have at least one person in the world who understood what I was going through as my parents used me to screw with each other.
...cry me a river.
You can pick on my dead baby brother anytime you want. I never knew the little bugger, and he was only around for a few minutes, 30 years back. Hell, I don't know if I've ever been told what his name was going to be.
Look, the old "my mom died last week in a car accident" shtick works pretty well, but the "my sibling, who I never knew, died 30 years ago"? Pretty difficult to invoke sympathy for, unless people get confused.
...carry on...