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Sunday, January 16, 2011

The Girl Next Door -Final Chapter


The Girl Next Door -Final Chapter

I predicted that it would end in tears, and it did end that way, but that does not make me any kind of genius. Most people would have called it the same way. If you are just tuning in, here’s a little background:

The girl next door was one of my neighbours who is about 34 years old, but has the understanding of a person aged about seven. She has a number of problems and her mother was her greatest supporter, but the mother died about three or four years ago. What made the girl her own worst enemy was that she had a tendency of breaking out into a prolonged crying state during which she would vomit. It certainly sounded awful and nothing that anyone tried could help her.

I often thought that she was crying for the loss of a normal life that was being denied her. After all, she was a woman on the outside, but a little girl trapped in a woman’s body.

She was a very difficult person to manage, but her mother was always there for her with patience and understanding. Once the mother died she was left in the care of her father who had limited intelligence and was completely out of his depth with her. The rest of the family decided to get on with their lives and leave it to daddy, but he was so frustrated that he took it out on her. The abuse was horrible and the crying more frequent and intense.

None of the family came to her help, nor any of the other neighbours would step forward. It fell on me, the foreigner to report the matter to the police and the City Hall. Investigations were held and everyone agreed that the situation was just not right and that something had to be done. Time went on, and the abuse continued through the first anniversary of the initial intervention; and the second anniversary came and went, and I was certain that he would strike her and kill her in a drunken rage.

If that happened there would be tears all around, and much shaking of heads and shrugging of shoulders, and then everybody would go back to their lives except the girl next door. She would simply be gone, failed by the system and everyone within it.

And then, out of the blue the Nuns came for her. They took her to their Convent and introduced her to other young people with similar living problems. She cried copious tears in separating from her father as they spent every minute of every day together, most of that time living in terror for her. At least she knew her life with her father, and all these people were strangers to her. This was even more terrifying, but with the help of her new friends she quickly settled down and came to realise that she was making a quantum leap forward.

Now, she is a completely new person. She no longer cries, and she has proven that she can learn. She can reach out to her relatives; she can make decisions on her own, and she can complete ordinary living tasks and be responsible for herself to a certain extent. She has put on weight as she is eating properly and has found a new sense of self worth.

Perhaps that was what she had been crying for all those many years. I am so very happy for her. This story could not have a happier ending, even for her father who could possibly meet a widow and have something of a life for himself.

Copyright © 2011 Eugene Carmichael