Chester Bennington - Unusual Neighbor

Plan in action

"Good morning," a Japanese-American woman greeted me with the main door of her house slightly opened.

"Uh -- Hi, hi, ma'am. My name is Ana. I really need to talk to you and your husband."

She furrowed her brows at me and for a moment she even speculated that I was another journalist, asking for an interview about their daughter's death. When it happened, they showed up everything, stepping on their open wounds, asking inopportune and painful memories about their daughter. The first time they read what they wrote about Mia's death, they said she was drunk and drugged and fell on the pool. Others said she was pushed to the water. There were other news articles where they dug deep into Mia's life and exposed everything about her. They even wrote about Chester and how he was the one responsible for her death. The police had to intervene several times. They would trespass their house to get a photo, a reaction, anything to feed the curiosity of the readers. Mr. Shinnoda almost killed a reporter that snuck into their house to take photos of Mia's room. They were that evil.

Those kinds of people haven't been around for some years, but they always come back for more juice in the story. It has been less frequent, but still, they always come back.

"I'm Chester Bennington's girlfriend. And I really, really need to talk to you about your son, Mike." I said, making her widen her eyes, which became teary almost instantly. A desperation tone took over my voice as I told her: "I need your help. Chester needs your help."

Mrs. Shinnoda eventually allowed me to get inside and called for her husband who was cutting the grass of the back yard. She must have told him why I was there and who I was since he was pale as a wall.

Before I knew it, I was in the living room, sitting on their brown couch, with a tea in my hand and two sets of dark brown eyes staring at me expectantly. 

I thought they would be unfriendly about the subject, about a stranger invade their lives and ask questions about their son and about their daughter's death. The truth is that I liked them as soon as they started speaking, considering the first thing they wanted to know was how Chester was going and if his life was good.

I looked down at my tea mug, not knowing how to properly answer their question, and they understood that he wasn't doing as well as they hoped. Discerning their anxiety, I raised my eyes at them and told them the whole truth.

"Chester is healing, slowly. Until I showed up in his life, he was... I don't know -- lost? He was in a dark place... a very dark place and -- and he even tried to commit suicide twice over the last few years."

Mr. and Mrs. Shinnoda both gasped, clutching to each other for comfort.

"He is getting the help he needs... and he has me now, so..." I gulped, getting lost in my train of thoughts. "The point is: when I met him, I knew he had a dark past. I tried to help him because I never saw anyone like him before and whatever happened, he didn't deserve to live like that... I mean... he has such a good heart, and so many horrible things happened to him... It was painful to watch him... After, uh -- after Mia, he was so, so lost... For years he knew nothing but drugs and alcohol and parties and grief and... and nothing but that deep meaningless void in his heart. I tried my best to help him. I know I changed his life, he is so much happier, so much lighter, and he is getting all the help he can get because he truly wants to get better now. The light I saw in his eyes in the pictures when he was younger is the same light that I can see trying to shine again in him. And he is trying so, so hard."

"I'm really glad to hear that he is doing better and that he is not alone," Mrs. Shinnoda said. She looked at her husband and he squeezed her hand for support. "When Mia died, he was blamed. Mike told us things and obviously, we believed. We were so angry about losing her that we wanted to blame someone. But when we found out the truth, it was too late for Chester... and for M-Mike."