LOTF: Before and After

Simon Bennett

CRITICAL CONTENT WARNING: graphic, vivid depictions of murder and first person POV of the experience of death

Born with his mother's eyes and her curly brown hair, Simon Bennett was known as her mini-me for the first few years of his life. But by the time he was old enough to speak in complete(ish) sentences, the Bennett family came to realize that young Simon was actually more of a mini-me of his father.

Collin Bennett, like many of the other cadets' fathers, was a military man. Collin too went to military school in his middle and then high school years, and went straight into the navy post-graduation. He served for just over a decade, a timeline that overlapped with the birth of his only son. When Simon was only three, his father suffered a major musculoskeletal injury that forced him into early retirement. He fell from a great height while on the battlefield, and was deemed lucky to survive. He was airlifted back to the United States to a hospital where his injuries were treated. It was after his recovery from the injury that Collin was forced to return to college to pursue a different career path. His wife, Rachel, pulled the weight of the family's finances for awhile while Collin got back on his feet. Once he graduated from college with a degree in business and mathematics, Collin found a job working as an accountant for a large firm.

What made Collin and his only son so much alike had nothing to do with his military background or the injury that forced him to retire, but about who he was as a man rather than a soldier. Collin was quiet, respectful, and preferred to be alone than with others. His voice was so naturally quiet that it made it difficult for others to hear him at times. And as Simon grew older and entered his early elementary years, it became clear that the boy was just as quiet and difficult to understand as his father. And once the Bennett parents came into the school for parent teacher interviews, the young boy's teachers saw exactly where his introverted personality came from.

Like his father, Simon was quiet, difficult to hear, and much preferred to work by himself. His teachers worried as he struggled and sometimes outright refused to work in groups for assignments. Not only was he deemed to be quiet, but he clearly suffered from a more than mild degree of social anxiety. Sometimes, in his kindergarten and first grade years, Simon would break down in tears when his teachers would consistently nudge him into joining a group of classmates for play or work. If pushed too hard, he would sometimes run out of the classroom as the stress overwhelmed him. It didn't improve as he moved into second grade, and by the end of the school year, both Collin and Rachel were concerned for their son's emotional wellness and development. When they tried to talk to the boy about his social life at school, he simply claimed to not like any of his classmates and just preferred to work and play by himself. The preference alone didn't explain the emotional outbursts he'd have if pushed too hard, but clearly the seven-year-old wasn't comfortable going into further detail about it.

Rachel Bennett had a hard time understanding and sometimes even empathizing with Simon because she was the exact opposite of him and her husband. Rachel was a social butterfly, and it wasn't uncommon for her to invite friends over to the Bennett house or go out with friends for a night on the weekends. Her personality was loud and sometimes even pushy, but she was undeniably a sweetheart who was filled with love for her family. There was nothing Rachel wouldn't have done for her husband and son, and everyone around them knew it. The differences between her and Simon made it hard for her to relate to him, but that never stopped her from going to bat for him. She was quick to jump to his defense in public, and would happily stomp all over anyone who dared to try and cause him harm.

While Rachel was a loving mom, she was also a pretty lax one. She never had strict bedtimes for Simon at any age. She let him stay up until he was tired even on school nights. Rachel also didn't micromanage his diet, and left the snack cabinet open and within his reach so he could snack whenever he was hungry, even if that happened to be right before dinner. She was one of those aggressively social and fun moms who constantly enjoyed taking the kids out with her friends or family. Simon only had a few close cousins, but they got together frequently. It took years for the boy to become social with the cousins around his age, and that never would've happened if he didn't have Collin and Rachel's constant support at family gatherings.