What We Deserve

Part 34: Family Meeting

I journeyed back into the home and honestly...

It could have been better.

Emilea was still crying over her tea cup and rug.

Jim was simply trying to help without having to say a word.

And Max.

Well...Max was love bombing his mother as if that was going to help.

"Mom, I'm really sorry. I love you and Dad- I was just dealing with my own mess and I should've asked for help but I didn't because what teenage boy allows people to help?"

Everything is so chaotic and Luna herself seems just as overwhelmed by it all.

"Okay! Enough!" I call out and it echoes over everyone's breakdown. They look at me and I sigh heavily. "I think...what needs to happen here, is we all need to simply take a breather and have a nice dialogue."

"Love, you're not a psychologist." Max states a tad angry with me.

"No- but I have certainly read all the DM5 as well as several other research books- that I think I can navigate us to a better situation than this." I state and he just tosses his hands up slightly from waist height and mumbles something under his breath. "That right there—is precisely why we need a dialogue. You are holding in emotions you probably haven't dealt with in ages. Not to mention all your other current dilemmas you find yourself in. Maybe they're all connected? Or maybe this is just something that will make you feel better in the long run. Either way, it's worth a shot and if it goes terribly- you can blame me."

He sighs and looks at me pleadingly.

"You've trusted me with your life in far worse situations than this...." I quietly state and he nods his head.

"Lead us then, Dr. Sharpe." He gestures for us sit and his mother seems to have calm down and his father deposits the broken pieces of tea cup into the sink in the kitchen before rejoining us. I make them sit on the long couch together and I hand Max Luna- before sitting in the armchair across from them.

"Alright...let's get to the root of destruction here. The root is the main thing that has left this family in disarray. To find the root, we must find the common denominator."

"Luna's passing." They say in unison and I nod.

"Very good. To understand why that is the root, we need to each share our feelings about it. No matter how similar. By sharing each other's feelings about the root event that caused the mass extinction of this core family value of trust and love- we can all gather an understanding of how it effected us as individuals and us as a group. Let's start with you Jim- Luna's passing."

"I was...I was devastated. Luna was my little girl and we were trying to do what any parent would and that's get her help. It was difficult seeing her in that hospital bed every day, but she was getting better. I had so much hope that my little girl would be coming home with us...but then we got the call that...that she had an infection that spread and she just...just passed away."

"A very understandable feeling indeed. Tell me, how did the passing change your perspective of position in the family?"

"What?"

"How did your role of father change at that moment?"

"I um...I had to be supportive and be there for my wife and Max."

"You felt you had to internally hold everything together. You couldn't grieve with them."

"Yes...exactly. I had to be tough and make decisions I never thought I'd have to make in a million years. No one prepares you to be a father- but you learn how to. You try to be your best and give them the tools to make the right decisions and you watch them grow and hope you don't mess them up in the process. At no point when you watch your child be born and grow do you ever think you'll have to...have to bury them." He sniffs and I hand him a tissue from the box beside me. He thanks me and blows his nose. "I hated seeing what it did to my wife and Max. I felt helpless. It took Emilea years to actually sleep again. To actually smile and feel comfortable talking about Luna. For a long time it was as if talking about her and how wonderful and beautiful and vibrant she was ...it felt like...like a crime. It felt wrong because it only made us feel like failures."