"This kid's obviously a fighter,'' [Lt. John] Walker said. "To see that kid laying there, it's heartbreaking to see that another human, especially a mother, could treat someone like that.''What do you think the bible's roll was in this... callous act?
"A lot of things could have happened out there,'' he said. "Obviously, he's in the middle of a wooded area. You have wild animals there. This kid could not defend himself. He does not function at all.''
The son's school became concerned about him and called an aunt. When the mother was contacted in Maryland, police said, she lied about his whereabouts.
"She indicated to both family members and police officers that the child was with her down in Maryland,'' Walker said.
Maybe, in her mind, the bible was protection? What was she thinking?
Obviously, we are not going to know for certain what she was thinking, but I want to hear some rampant speculation.
23 comments:
Mom reached the breaking point. I would guess that we all have one.
Maybe there's a passage in the bible where God commanded the Hebrews to dump the useless.
Maybe somewhere in Exodus.
That is a horrible story…I do know enough about the background if the mom was just a horrible person or just lost it. Still, I am just glad they found him.
I'm with Allen on this. She popped and she didn't know how to handle it anymore and her limit was reached. I don't think she doesn't love her son, but she realized that she can't care for him anymore and leaving him out in the woods to die would have been more humane? I don't know how people think when they lose it. Maybe she took it as a cue from when the old and infirmed would wander off into the woods and leave the tribe behind so they don't have to deal with them anymore. When it was their time, they went off to die.
Either way, I don't know what she thought was going to happen afterwards when her family would ask were her son was. It's not like she can say he ran away and joined the circus.
Methadras said...
Maybe she took it as a cue from when the old and infirmed would wander off into the woods and leave the tribe behind so they don't have to deal with them anymore
That was probably her reasoning for leaving the Bible.
The gesture seems rather more crazy than cruel, but, if she did reach the breaking point, she broke with an unusually sharp, jagged edge......I read somewhere that quadriplegia and chronic intractable pain are the two ailments that cause most people to become suicidal. Maybe she felt that she was in some way acting out her son's wishes without actually killing him herself.....This isn't the feel good story of the year.
Caregiving at this level for this long -- with many years to come is almost unfathomable. I do not know how families -- much less a single mother -- would be able to manage without assistance.
I am my 98 year old mother's caregiver. She is still lucid (though slipping) limited mobility (walks a little with a walker for short distances) is in a wheelchair most of the time, does her basic self care but needs help with toileting. Etc.
I have a background in nursing so her rehab and care post subdural hematoma sx was doable for us. (Husband.)
But your whole life is completely reordered and limited if you are a caretaker.
There are support groups, and I would think that for someone like this son with such severe disability, there would be government assistance.
THIS is what the "safety net" is for.
Mu mother could be in a nursing home but what little savings she has would be gone, her ability to visit family on the west coast would be eliminated, and she would be on Medicaid, costing y'all $$$. (Besides, she probably would have died by now and missed the great grandbabies...)
We have chosen not to do that.
This mother needs help, and the son's caseworker needs to be involved and help even if it means placing him in a facility. For both of their sakes.
Desperate people do desperate things. This was a horrible thing to do.
I thought we called the Indians savages for doing this.
AllenS said...
Mom reached the breaking point. I would guess that we all have one.
Having taken care of my mother (Alzheimer's), my aunt (broken hips, dementia), and helped with the Blonde's mother (Alzheimer's), I understand your point truly, but there are agencies she could have gone to for help, private charities, etc.
I feel nothing but compassion for this situation. As others have said it is unbelievable when you are a caregiver to the extent that this woman was and she just reached the point where she gave up. It is just fortunate that she did not out right kill her child and herself.
They both need our help and compassion.
Amen, Dolan.
I've watched grown men in combat, reach that breaking point.
Amen Dolan and AllenS ... everyone has a breaking point, some of us are lucky enough to not reach it...it isn't that we couldn't...we're just fortunate we don't. At least that is what I believe for me.
She could have called a social services agency to take him out of her home, if she could no longer cope. Or dropped him at a hospital. Or at a fire station. Or someplace else where he could get help, and be taken care of.
Leaving him to die in the forest was cruel.
Yes, Michael, she should have done any one of those options, but, when a person reaches the breaking point, they no longer think rationally. That is why I can understand why she did the unthinkable for those of us not in that situation. This was more than likely been developing for a very long time. Far past the rationality of her comprehension.
A terrible story to say the least. I'm sure that she felt alone with no one close to her to offer support.
I'm thinking that she was thinking that she couldn't take the role of caregiver to a completely dependent child for the rest of her life until she died.
And the thing is... she *could* have taken him somewhere to someone and said "I'm done"... but did she have any familial support to do that? Maybe everyone in her family was saying she should just stop and refused and hand his care off to others. Maybe it was just her own mind that trapped her.
When I was in the PI an American family was trying to adopt a baby that was going to die without the medical care they could provide but the mother refused. I assume the baby died. I spent time then and since then trying to understand that decision. Certainly if she loved her child she'd give it up. Certainly if she didn't love the child she'd give it up. I *think* I can get my head in a place where her refusal was rational, but I don't think I can explain it.
Also, and I'll say this... whatever led up to her abandoning her son? Prison will take all the burden off of her shoulders for him and for anyone else and even for herself. She'll be free.
Glad to know that the young man is recovering. But I want to make a cripple joke so bad it's killing me.
He had a great future ahead of him playing second base for.... Damn, Rabel, stop it.
Now I'm going to be trying to figure that one out for the rest of my days.
Thanks Rabel.
You know Universities now handle rape accusations? you know they have investigative boards and student boards and whatever...
I was thinking, why should the authorities get involved with this incident?
Why not let her church handle it?
I'm just thinking aloud.
The Bible may have simply been a symbolic giving his fate over to God... In a way that made sense to someone having a psychotic break. Giving up responsibility. And yeah. Women who do crazy stuff like this will kill themselves and their children. In any case, crazy or criminal, no one will put her in charge of this young man ever again.
Yes, she may have snapped or she could be mentally ill.
You never know.
Its tough dealing with that kind of situation day after day.
"In any case, crazy or criminal, no one will put her in charge of this young man ever again."
Agreeance on that.
AllenS said ...
A terrible story to say the least. I'm sure that she felt alone with no one close to her to offer support.
I agree.
"Breaking" down is horrible, but it is also human. From what I've read, her boyfriend she went to visit turned her in, not out of spite, but kindness of the hardest kind.
We all are just lucky in most of our lives and don't face such dilemmas...dilemmas that break a soul.
What can the rest of us do. I only wish I had an answer.
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