A little bit of background:
Two days after my wedding I ended up in the hospital. My gallbladder had suddenly ruptured (like a freak thing apparently, no gall stones or anything) and I collapsed. I was septic and very sick. I was in the ICU for a week, then on a med-surg unit for another week before being released. My wedding took place out of state from where I lived so I wasn't well enough to make the drive the almost 400 mile trip for another week. I then had to go right back to work once I got home.
Within a week my aunt passed away suddenly. So we had to travel back to NJ for the funeral for a couple of days. Before going back home, we found out my mom had cancer. This prompted my new husband and I to up and move back to NJ. Now, we were able to find an apartment within a month of finding out this news. Unfortunately, I had to wait for 3 months before my NJ nursing license to be processed so I was sort of in limbo. I couldn't leave my job in Pittsburgh even though I had no place to live. I had to stay with a friend while I was working, then drive to NJ on my off days every week (about a 7 hour drive) while waiting for the licensure.
Once I was able to finally officially move to NJ I started work the next day... then within a week I found out I was pregnant. Awesome. Except I ended up in the hospital on IV fluids with hyperemesis gravidarum. Then my mom was in and out of the hospital with her cancer. It was a very tough time for my whole family.
So while all this was going on I had the issue of writing out the Thank Yous for my wedding. Obviously life was insane and I just couldn't get them all done within a reasonable time. This actually drove me crazy, like a dark cloud over my head. So we would do a little bit at a time and send out what we could. Everyone for the most part was very understanding considering the circumstances.
Well a cousin of mine posted a nasty little comment on my Facebook wall about not receiving a thank you card. She basically said my husband and I were a-holes for finding it "too annoying" to send out thank-you notes for our wedding. My husband and her ended up getting into it over this. A couple of other people jumped in to tell her what she said was uncalled for. I was more pissed that she posted it on my Facebook so people can see it and look at me in a negative light. Like I send, we've been sending them out, but they were later than I wanted them to be. At this point all of our thank yous are mailed with the exception of this cousins. My husband told her we'd send back her gift in the midst of their little tiff.
So basically what I'm asking... how should I go about doing this? How do I word her thank you card? She didn't attend the wedding but she mailed us a Target gift card. I was thinking of something along the lines of:
"Dear Cousin,
Thank you so much for thinking of us on our wedding day. We really appreciate your generous gift but unfortunately we don't think it would be appropriate for us to accept it. Again, thank you for thinking of us.
Best wishes,
Mr + MrsCharlieRN"
Do you feel that is appropriate? I know I'll probably get flamed for this post but again, I had other priorities considering the circumstances and like I said, they are all sent out now except this one. I do feel bad that it took a couple of months to get them out and have apologized profusely to most of our wedding guests but I still felt it to be in poor taste for her to call me out, so to speak, about not receiving a note and to act the way she did. I pretty much feel like there's no other option than to send her gift back. I certainly don't want it and after the argument her and DH had, he's not budging.