My wife’s family chillingly believes that if her sister were alive, I’d have married her instead

[@WiccanRai]

Reading the title I thought this was about an adult sister who'd passed, which would still be sad and creepy but it's worse it's about a baby that passed decades ago. I can't even imagine what it must be like for that poor woman to have grown up constantly being compared to what is basically a fantasy daughter. The parents have made up their 'perfect daughter' from the memory of their deceased baby and used it to emotionally abuse their other daughter. The parents need a lot of therapy in order to process and finally move on from their tragic loss and to made to see the emotional damage they've put on their very much alive youngest daughter. That daughter is lucky now she has found love and support from her husband. She needs to remove herself from her family for her sake and her son, who doesn't need to grow up listening to the way his grandparents talk about his mother. I wonder how the brothers were treated and what they think? This may seem incredibly harsh, but maybe use the parents' tactics against them by saying something like "if Mia were alive she'd be appalled at how you treat her sister". Maybe it would shock the parents into thinking about what they say and shut them up for once.