My mother [56F] just went to bed crying because she doesn't think anyone cares about her. How can I show her that I do?

Hi,

So it's 7:30PM, I'm visiting home for the week and my mother went to bed just a few minutes ago. I asked her what's up, because usually she's watching TV in the living room, and she told me that she was just going to bed because no one wants to talk or care about her, and began breaking down crying. So I [23/M] held her for a minute and told her to talk to me about it when she's ready earlier today, but I expect she won't - she keeps her sadness to herself.

I can see where this comes from; my family is subtly dysfunctional and there's not a strong sense of closeness to any member of it. For as long as I've been alive, what usually happens in the house is that everyone is in a completely separate room, doing something different. My dad [60/M] is reading emails and watching old movies in his office, my brother [20/M] is watching modern artsy movies in his room, I'm [23/M] studying graduate-level Math in the dining room, and my mom is watching TV in the living room. For the first 18 years of my life, some variation of this happened every day, and it leaves you with soul-crushing loneliness. I wish I were joking, but that's literally happing right now, and yesterday, and every other time I'm home for longer than a day, and it seems pretty clear to me it takes a toll on my mother too. What can I do to make sure this doesn't happen again?

TL:DR I doubt she'd be willing to talk to me about it, but what do you think I can do to make sure she's cared for?

Submitted July 31, 2018 at 05:02PM by Bingbu https://ift.tt/2OBkKwL