https://sundayeveningreview.com/tags/difficult-people/Recent content in Difficult People on Sunday Evening ReviewHugoen-usSat, 16 May 2026 06:00:00 -0500https://sundayeveningreview.com/letters/since-you-asked-the-person-who-takes-up-all-the-room/Sat, 16 May 2026 06:00:00 -0500https://sundayeveningreview.com/letters/since-you-asked-the-person-who-takes-up-all-the-room/<p><strong>Dear Lorraine,</strong></p> <p>My sister Patricia has been my best friend for sixty-two years. Or I thought she was. Over the last decade or so I&rsquo;ve started to track something I can&rsquo;t un-see: every conversation, within two minutes, turns back to her. Her neighbor. Her health. Her opinion about whatever is happening in the world.</p> <p>Last spring I called her to tell her my husband&rsquo;s cardiologist had found something that needed a second opinion. She said &ldquo;Oh, that&rsquo;s scary&rdquo; and then pivoted to a forty-minute account of her HOA dispute. I sat in my kitchen afterward feeling hollowed out. I hadn&rsquo;t told her anything that mattered, and I didn&rsquo;t know why.</p>