Some hard truths
My mother has limited time left on this earth. She has chosen to spend this time being as unpleasant to me as possible. There may not be anything anyone can do about this, least of all me. Like the scorpion in the story, it is her nature.
I'm not getting any younger myself. I will probably never have any children of my own.
If I had met my ex today, things might have been different. We might even have made it work. But if I hadn't met her eight years ago, I would not be the person I am now, and there would not be any hope at all. Try as I might, I cannot escape the logic.
I may never be able to solve the biggest problem of all, the problem that has dominated my life for the past years, because it is really somebody else's problem, and you can't solve other people's problems for them.