between in-laws and outlaws?

Outlaws are wanted.

I heard that joke a few years ago; I think a service technician told it, as he proceeded to lament on his family drama.

In my own experience with in-laws, I have always felt that I have been shortchanged by not having kind ones. My mother in law is toxic at her worst, and passive aggressive at her best. She is usually the former.
She and her husband are celebrating their 65th wedding anniversary today. They are 85 and almost 87, respectively. There will be an elaborate celebration at a fancy restaurant this evening. It is a two hour drive from where we are, so we will leave soon.
This woman is very cruel.
She and her husband had three children. They are very damaged adults to this day, and struggle in numerous ways, as a result of being raised by her. The father was a military officer, engrossed in his career, so the mother was the main caregiver and influencer of the children.
She had an affair with her husband’s best friend, another army colonel, whilst her husband was at war in Vietnam.
Her eldest son (my husband, 62) exposed the affair when his father returned from Vietnam.
Interestingly enough, he is still his mother’s favourite, to this day, even though he essentially put a stop to her extramarital affair, which apparently broke her heart because she supposedly was deeply in love with the man.
The other man was also married.
Mother in law was reportedly extremely angry and depressed for decades because she did not run away with him. Her husband begged her to stay, and she did, begrudgingly. She punished the children, and made them pay for her unhappiness. They, especially her second born son, became a receptacle for her shame, disgust, anger and longing.
She also carried on a long distance affair with the guy, that spanned many decades, sometimes meeting up for sex at local motels.
She would fly into rages and leave the house in a dramatic huff, supposedly because the kids or her husband were driving her nuts. This was all in the plan, so she could go and meet her paramour when he was in town.
The other two offspring, now 60 and 56, have had very tumultuous, unhappy lives, and I believe (as they do) that it is a direct result of their mother’s toxicity and abuse during their minority, and well after they’d left home. They are train wrecks.
Anyway, it is time to leave for the dinner now.
I will wish them a happy anniversary, sit politely, and smile and smile until my face hurts.