On Thursday night while I was talking to
Michael I got a weird feeling about the following day. Michael and I joked about the different things it could be, but never really expecting anything to happen. For the most part we were right nothing really happened on Friday, but the weekend itself was quite an eye opening experience for me.
A lot of people take their families for granted, not really thinking about all the things they have done for them in the past. I realized this weekend I had been one of these people. On Saturday night everything seemed to being going in a fairly normal fashion until it came time for Jacqueline to get ready for bed. Now back tracking a minute, if you remember a few post back I had mentioned that Jacqueline had gone to be evaluated for ADD and ADHD and that they came back and said that yes she does have ADHD but they also think she might be bipolar. After what happened Saturday night I believe she is bipolar. There were two totally different girls that showed their faces that night. First there was the friendly, caring, loving, happy, hyper little girl, but then her mother told her to brush her teeth and she made a 180 degree change, and if I didn't know any better I could have sworn she had turned into the devil himself. At first she just said no that she didn't want to brush her teeth and Cathy told her that if she brushed her teeth that she could watch TV for 30 minutes in bed before going to sleep. This did not work Jacqueline continued to fight it. So Cathy told her that she just lost 5 minutes off the original 30. Jacqueline then started jumping up and down crying saying "ok, ok, I am sorry, please give me another chance." Cathy just told her again to brush her teeth and Jacqueline just replied with no. So Cathy said fine you lose another 5 minutes and Jacqueline starting crying again and whining again about wanting another chance. Then Jacqueline says "I don't love you, I hate you" and stormed out of the room, Cathy did not follow but just watched her. Just out the door and out of my view, Jacqueline went off and left me in complete shock of what I was hearing. She started growling and snarling and screaming and telling her mom to "Get out, Get out of this house! I hate you, get out of here!" over and over again. And then came back in her room and hit Cathy in which Cathy did finally return the hit and told her not to hit people, and told her that she had now lost TV for that night and once again to brush her teeth. So Jacqueline goes in and brushes her teeth in about 15 seconds which Cathy obviously knew was not really brushing your teeth so she told her to do it again. Jacqueline said "no" so Cathy got up and grabbed Jacqueline's tooth brush and brushed her teeth for her while Jacqueline screamed and took a few swings. After this Cathy took Jacqueline into her room and preceded to talk with her for about 15 minutes. Cathy finally returned and broke down in tears.
Now you might be wondering why she didn't beat the crap out of Jacqueline's butt. I would have probably wondered myself if I had not heard and seen what I had just seen. How do you handle a situation like that? I would not have a clue what to do. You can not punish Jacqueline because she had no control over herself and the way she was acting and returning violence towards her probably would have just fueled Jacqueline even more. After seeing that I have never felt so sorry for both Cathy and William. I don't know how they do that day after day like they do, it has to be hard.
After words the whole scenario of that night got me to thinking about everything my family has gone through over the years, especially the last 10 or so years. We have had both of my sisters getting divorced in that time with some child custody battles and Cathy going though a mental breakdown at the same time that Jeralyn had E-coli and had lost her baby, plus the problems and stress that my grandmother caused my parents before she died, and recently the whole business failure because of my sister and her husband not holding up their end of the bargain, which eventually led to us having to sell the house in Peachtree City. Yet through all these rough times were several other families might have folded mine didn't. We always have stuck together and been there for each other when we needed it most, and are probably stronger and closer today because of it. Now today we have Jillian, with epilepsy and Jacqueline looking like she is bi-polar now causing stress and problems and I once again see everyone stepping up and helping anyway they can, even if it's just for a shoulder to cry on.
|| Vespere Hesperian 5:37 PM
