My mother-in-law thinks my aunt put a curse on her.

My grandmother and her cousin moved to the city together as teenagers from a poor area. We’ve always called her “Aunt Cathy,” even though she’s not really our aunt. Well, Cathy is 70, and my mother-in-law is only 50. Aunt Cathy has been visiting my grandmother’s house for a while, which is 15 minutes away from ours and 10 minutes away from my mother-in-law’s. Back then, Aunt Cathy had a daughter, my oldest friend, who had an intellectual disability and various health problems. Her daughter and I were very close; in fact, I work with people with intellectual disabilities through her. Cathy’s daughter and I spoke weekly throughout my childhood, teenage years, and adult life. She died eight months ago. My Aunt Cathy went to the local hair salon and overheard my mother-in-law talking about me. There is a minor medical problem in our family that usually runs with age without any long-term consequences. Ever since my daughter was born, I have confronted my mother-in-law and her husband several times for saying, “My granddaughter has problems because of her maternal family,” “Her family has bad genes,” and “She got an illness from her mother.” So, Aunt Cathy called me very angry and told me to call my mother-in-law out on this. It turns out my mother-in-law said, “Her mother has bad genes and that’s why my granddaughter has a problem.” And Cathy told her, “You can’t talk about my little girl like that! If there is any justice in this world, you will only have grandchildren on my niece’s side” or something similar. I told Cathy that I understood and that it must have been hard for her after her daughter died recently, and I apologized for my mother-in-law’s behavior. My mother-in-law called my husband and told him that Cathy (he found out she’s my aunt just as he was yelling at her) put a curse on him and that his siblings won’t have children if he doesn’t take it off. My husband told her that he owes Cathy and me an apology. My mother-in-law insists that Cathy have to take back the “curse.” My mother-in-law believes that if someone makes a bad wish on you, it comes true. I told her that I’m not in charge of Aunt Cathy. Aunt Cathy laughed when I told her today what her words did. Cathy said, “Let the witch worry.”