|
There is no way I know how to make this long story short. Because after 10+ years it still plays itself out. In every nightmare, flashback and painfull memory, with each tear to remind me that my family was torn apart systematically ironically by a system which is portrayed to support and keep together. Our family had its share of problems like most. We were of low/medium income. With little help from our own parents which was small to begin with. Mom an only child (no aunts or uncles there). And the early death of my only brother at age 18 caused by an auto accident, a drunken driver. Also the early death of my husbands father due to liver cancer. There simply was little family left to go around. Our son was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder and Dyslexia. My sister inlaw diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. However we had our youth and our health on our side commited to each other. We were strong with plenty of resilence which enabled us to see our struggles as challenges. We were rich in love, spirit, loyalty and dedication to each other and our children. We were simply a "FAMILY". It was as close as one could get to a story book fairy tale with me as "Mother Hen", my husband as Pa-Pa Bear with our "baby ducklings" our "baby buntins". Blessed with these we were armed, immune or so we thought for what was to become a full fledged attack on our family. An attack by an enemy whos abuse of its power was so out of control. An enemy called the Department Of Social Services. Also known as "fly paper" dubbed this by some Attorneys because like a helpless fly trapped the more it tries to free itself the more D.S.S. holds on. One of these attorneys had said to me that their firm would not even consider any dealings with them without the cost of $10,000.00 minimum! What is still unbelievable to me to this day is the fact that their damage was so overwhelming and intimidating so residual leaving us too beaten up to recover that eventually it "won" our family this, is still the most difficult to accept and admit. I remember my husband always saying "they can never break our spirit" as we tried to endure the ordeal on one level trying to pretend that it could not be real that it cpold not really be happening, how could it be? This was the United States Of America we were not in Russia where there was a communist regime. And on another level knowing we could not give up for the sake of our son and for the sake of our family. He a man that had lied on his back in the snow to help a stranded motorist repairing his transmission. He a man that paced up and down the halls throughout the nights of our apartment building carrying our newborn son in a baby carrier to calm him so that I could get some rest between nursings. A man that built our home himself. His spirit was eventually broken falling to his knees crying out WHY? WHY???? To say that the D.S.S. mishandles family cases to the point of all too often irreversible trauma to familys is NOT an exaggeration. After a news conference was held where Massachusetts Governor William Weld had blasted D.S.S. and its handling of its cases the then Commissioner of D.S.S. Loraine Carli was asked by a local News 7 reporter covering our story if they had bungled this one too? Her answer was "Well I dont know if we have handled this case properly and we are taking another look to see where we can go from here" This offered no comfort and was and would remain too little too late. (Under Construction) Story completion coming soon Thanks For Your Patience |
|
