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THE
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CCCC b SSSS .
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C b S
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C y y bbbb eee r rr SSSS eee nnnn i ooo r rr
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C y y b b eee rr S eee n n i o o rr
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C y y b b e r S e n n i o o r
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CCCC yyyy bbbb eee r SSSS eee n n i ooo r
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y
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yy
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REVIEW
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===============================================
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VOL.1 NO.3 OCTOBER 1994
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===============================================
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The CyberSenior Review is a project of the Internet Elders
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List, a world-wide Mailing List of seniors. The Review is
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written, edited and published by members of the Elders.
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The contents are copyrighted 1994 by the Elders List and
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by the authors. All rights reserved by the authors.
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Copying is permitted with attribution.
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The current editorial board of The CyberSenior Review is:
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Elaine Dabbs edabbs@ucc.su.oz.au
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Pat Davidson xuegxaa@csv.warwicxk.ac.uk
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James Hursey jwhursey@cd.columbus.oh.us
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=========================================================================
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CONTENTS, Volume 1, Number 3
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Editorial
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Jenny and Her Family Face Drugs, by John Davidson
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How one family coped with the horror of a daughter
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who becomes addicted.
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A Trip to Australia, Or: I Came, I Saw, I Stayed, by Lotte Evans
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One lady's experience of emmigrating from Austria
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to Australia in the fifties.
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What Did You Call Me? Or: My Mother Didn't Raise Her Boy
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to be a Senior Citizen, by Sam Weissman
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Sam wonders how he became one of "them," a member of
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a group now studied by scientific researchers.
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=========================================================================
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EDITORIAL
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With this third issue of the CyberSenior Review we go network wide with our
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distribution. This issue will become part of the CICnet electronic magazine
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archives maintained at the University of Michigan. Now, I am not sure just
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exactly what this means, or how important it is, but you have to admit that it
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sounds good. You may also find the first two issues in CICnet, but it is only
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fair to tell you that at the time we put those issue together we had no
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thought of distributing them further than our own mailing list. Be warned.
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A perusal of the CICnet archives shows dozens of electronic publications from
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amateurish 'zines to scholarly and professional journals. Our Review will
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certainly not be the worst of the bunch, nor would we presume it to be among
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the best, but we think for a bunch of amateur publishers, it is not bad.
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Note that I did not say "for a bunch of old (fill in your particular insulting
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term)". We dont use those terms. As you will note in Sam's slightly tongue-in-
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cheek article, we dont even like terms like "senior citizen" and "golden
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ager." We are just people who have lived longer.
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Also in this Review you will find John Davidson's heart-rending account of his
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daughter Jenny's bout with drug addiction. None of our children, or
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grandchildren, are safe from this scourge of modern life. I dont think it will
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spoil John's article to say that finally there is a happy ending.
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Follow along, too, with our intrepid Lotte as she braves storms at sea,
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grouchy doctors and disapproving Italian moms to reach her promised land and
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the sun-bronzed Aussie she didn't even know awaited her there.
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--Jim Hursey
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===============================================
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===============================================
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JENNY AND HER FAMILY FACE DRUGS
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by John Davidson
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Forward:
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No one ever thinks that their kids are into drugs, but
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when they do recognize the problem they think that a doctor or
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treatment center can promptly make them well again. We learned
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about this the hard way, as do most parents with children into
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drugs.
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The following snippet of our experience in getting our
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daughter into treatment and what we learned will, hopefully,
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help someone else to recognize a pending problem. For this
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reason my daughter Jenny has consented to let me share these
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notes that I made at the time.
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************
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"Dad, I need help. I don't seem to handle this myself."
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These words were spoken to me by my 19 year old daughter,
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Jenny, one morning. She had just come home after several days
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of absence. This was the first clear signal to us that she was
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an addict. My wife, Louise, and I still didn't know what
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Jenny's addictions were. We thought that she might have an
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alcohol problem, but we never thought of her as an alcoholic.
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To us she was still an immature girl that we loved very much,
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even though we were frequently angry about her behaviour. We
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thought that, mainly, she had made poor choices in friends.
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Everything would be all right if we could get her motivated to
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go back to school or to get a job. We had even bought her a
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late model used car to build her pride. Earlier we had
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promised her $2000 when and if she graduated from high school.
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We had been seeing a family therapist and we turned to
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her for advice on treatment. She recommended several treatment
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programs and we started gathering information from them. They
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included both inpatient and outpatient facilities as well as
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for women only. Jenny was at first reluctent to consider
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anything but an outpatient facility. A few days later, though,
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she suddenly decided that if she was to be successful she
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would need to go to a resident facility. This was the second
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time that she had made a really important decision about her
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own treatment.
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The nature of her addiction was still vague to us. She
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said that she was smoking too much pot, and just couldn't come
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home and meet responsibilities after she had had some. She had
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left several jobs after only a day or two of work. She said
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that they were too uninteresting. Her last job I had taken her
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to her interview and Louise had delivered her to the entrance
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on her first day of work. Later that day, the firm had called
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asking about her. She had apparently never even gone in the
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door, but left to be with her friends. She didn't come home
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for several days.
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We found a treatment center for girls up to 20 years old
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that seemed to be what we were looking for. They were well
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recommended, and my telephone discussions with them indicated
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they were caring and experienced. One of the problems was that
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the facility was not in Seattle, but was located east of the
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Cascade mountains and it was mid November, with the passes
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frequently closed by snow. Transportation was going to be a
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problem, particularly since they thought that it was necessary
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for the family to participate in a four day session at the
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beginning of December. Jenny was also concerned about leaving
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right away since she would be away from home on her 20th
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birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. Again she
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came through with a good decision for herself and agreed to
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leave immediately. It was a rainy, cold, and bleak Monday
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before Thansgiving that I took her to the airport and put her
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on a commuter airplane for the trip over the Cascades. The
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treatment center had promised to have a councelor meet the
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plane.
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Jenny was feeling rather low anyway since she had taken
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a last fling the several days before she left. Like she had
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done so many times before she had promised that she would be
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home by midnight and just wanted to say goodbye to some
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friends. She hadn't come home until late the next day. It
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would be hard to tell who was in worse shape, Jenny or her
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parents after one of these episodes. We would listen for every
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bus that went down the hill in front of our house. After the
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last bus we would listen for cars to slow down. Many times we
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would get into violent arguments. The smallest slight would
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cause us to escalate our fear into anger with each other.
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Trying to carry on our work the next day while listening for
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the phone (willing it to ring) and waiting in vain for our
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Jenny to call left us tired most of the time. Several times
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Jenny had been beaten up, but each time she had taken legal
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action against her abuser, but then had gone back to them
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again.
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Even though we were sorry to see Jenny away from home
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during the holidays we looked forward to some freedom from
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anxiety. At that time we thought that we would be able to just
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turn her over to the experts, and in six weeks she would come
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home cured and ready to begin a productive life.
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Other than checking that Jenny had arrived safely, we
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didn't worry about her for several days. After all, pot wasn't
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so serious, she just needed to catch her breath and learn some
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new habits. Also, the rules of the treatment center did not
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permit phone calls to or from the new residents for a week.
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About the third day the other shoe dropped. Her counsellor
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called to report on Jenny. First, her drugs of choice were
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cocaine and crack and she had been using them heavily for at
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least half a year. Second, her withdrawal symptoms were quite
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severe, and there was concern that Jenny would "run". Even
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though the treatment facility is in a farming area ten miles
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from a major community some of the residents fled during their
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first weeks. Later we found that Jenny had made a commitment
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to her councelor that she would give it one week. Fortunately,
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by the end of that time she was able to see enough hope that
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she wanted to continue. Again Jenny had made a tough decision
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that was in her own best interest.
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At the end of the week we had a call from Jenny that was
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quite exciting. She had made it through the worst of the
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withdrawal, she was working hard on her own recovery, and she
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had some new interests. Trivial as they might seem, they were
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significant to her well being. She asked us to send her
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coloring books, crayons and markers. I guess that symbolically
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she was going back to an earlier and happier period in her
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life. She was also taking charge of her boredom and using
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discipline to create things of beauty. On our first visit to
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the treatment center we saw a collection of butterflies and
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exotic flowers that were as luminescent as stained glass
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windows.
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During the following week we had a number of calls from
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Jenny and from her councellors. Jenny was working hard in her
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groups and individual sessions and semed to be responding to
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the displine of regular hours and wholesome food. Jenny told
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me, with pride, that everything was made from "scratch" and
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nothing had sugar in it. She was quite excited about our
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forthcoming visit for the four day family program. We assumed
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that this would be a time to tour the center, hear progress
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reports, visit with our daughter, and get some advice about
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her future care. It turned out to be all that and much much
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more.
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Crossing the Cascades in a small commuter airplane during
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the winter is frequently an iffy proposition. The Seattle
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airport first has to be free of fog and this can be a problem
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for days at a time. Next the airport on the other side has to
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be open. Fog and snow can keep it closed on short notice, too.
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We left several hours late on an evening flight from Seattle
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and after 40 minutes of darkness and bouncing around landed on
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the other side. We had a few problems such as the car rental
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agency being closed for the night and losing our way the next
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day on the snowy drive out to the treatment center but it was
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all forgotten when we saw our Jenny. We only had a few minutes
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to see her room (which she shared with four other girls)
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before we gathered with other parents and their daughters to
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meet the staff and to hear about the family program of the
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next four days. Jenny sat between Louise and I and it was like
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earlier times before the disease of drugs had struck our
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family.
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The very first session told us that we were going to be
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involved far more than we had expected and that we were there
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to work. This made sense, too, as we began learning about the
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disease we were dealing with. The program for the next four
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days was divided between group therapy (parents and residents,
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and parents alone), teaching about the disease and resources
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that are available, and individual counselling. We had homework
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each night, too. One of the most significant revelations
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during the introductions of staff was to learn that every
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single one of the counsellors or assistants was a recovering
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addict. I was wondering why none of them had recovered, but it
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came out later that the nature of the disease is that they
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will never recover in the sense that you get over the measles.
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They will have to live for the rest of their lives in a manner
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that will keep their disease in check. They will never be able
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to use any chemical that causes dependency without risking
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relapsing into their former addiction. The clear message that
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they gave us was that if the addict didn't control the
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addiction she would die, that simple. This was emphasized by
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posters and slogans in the hallways. They now had our
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attention.
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The second hour got us into the heart of the program. It
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was called "Multi-Family Therapy" (everyone). We were all
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seated in a circle, daughters with parents. In a few cases
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brothers or sisters of the resident had joined the parents. We
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went around the circle and gave our names and how we were
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feeling. Most people indicated they were anxious, but no big
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emotions showed. There was a little silence, then one of the
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daughters said, "I want to work." She turned to her family and
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said, "Mom, I want to tell you how sorry I am that I stole
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from you. You don't know that I was the one who took your
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......" She went on telling of the things she had done to
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support her addiction. By this time she was sobbing and so was
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her family. There were no dry eyes in the room after a few
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girls had confessed to their parents. The exercise was far
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more than confession, though. The girls asked for forgiveness
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and the parents responded, usually not only forgiving, but
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also admitting things they were concerned about, such as being
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too strict, or not strict enough. The overwhelming impression
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was of the honesty and the desire to be supportive.
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The role of the counsellors was not immediately apparent,
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but soon one noticed a soft question, or a calm confrontation
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that kept the work going. In every response one found that in
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some way it applied to himself even though it was from a
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family that had not been known before this day. It came our
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turn and our daughter managed to shock us to the core. This
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was followed by an overpowering compassion and realization of
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the pain she had been suffering. We took a giant stride
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forward at that time in our understanding of her disease and
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our desire to make the family well again. We realized that we
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had been a dysfunctional family and we had the desire to
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change. Not everybody fared as well. The response of one girl
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was obviously phony. One of her fellow residents called her on
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it. Nothing changed at that time, or during the four days, but
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a month later when I was visiting at Christmas, this girl ran
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up to me and said she deserved a hug, during the previous week
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she had taken major steps to make herself well again.
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Lunch was a welcome break. The morning had been intense.
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It was hard to realize that it had only been four hours ago
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that we had arrived at the treatment center and first seen the
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residents and their parents and the staff. We all shared a
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common bond in our experiences with addicts and addiction, but
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there wasn't much talk about it at lunch. We were all in the
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here and now, just recovering from the emotions of the
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morning. There was also the beginning of acceptance of the
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strain that each of the families had been under and hadn't
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admitted before now. Our daughter seemed very close to us
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after the morning's revelations and we could begin to
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understand some of the pain she had been through.
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The schedule after lunch called for a movie (video
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cassette) that was supposed to give us an idea of what it was
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like to be on drugs. It was well acted with attractive,
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believable characters. Unlike entertainment movies, though,
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there was no hero, and the main character died of an accidetal
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overdose. Afterwards I told my daughter that the movie really
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helped me to understand addiction. She looked at me and said,
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"Dad, you can't really know what it is like without being
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hooked. The flood of good feeling that I get from cocaine
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would make me do anything to bring it back when it wears off.
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I felt this way from the very first time I tried it."
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Later, in group, she told some of the things that she had
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done to get cocaine. It was totally foreign to our experience
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and to hers prior to addiction. It made us realize that
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although there are large numbers of long term criminals
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involved in drugs, the addiction process also creates "instant
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criminals".
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Our homework that night was to prepare a detailed
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description, following an outline, of our own experiences
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relating to the addiction of our daughter. These included the
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thefts from us, having to keep everything locked up, the long
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nights of worry when we didn't know where Jenny was, the
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searching for her, the verbal abuse we received. Prior to
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working on this list we had not realized the extent to which
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our lives had been taken over by drugs. It had all started so
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gradually, but now we realized that we were codependents!
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The next day we used our list of experiences to start our
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own recovery. The Alanon literature calls it the "first step".
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We learned more about Alanon later in the program. For now,
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though, we had the basis for a powerful realization - We were
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able to admit that we were powerless over the addict and that
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our lives had become unmanageable. This was a crucial point in
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the recovery of the family. This was formalized in a meeting
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with Jenny, her councelor, and ourselves. We went over the
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list with Jenny and admitted we were powerless over her, but
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that we also meant to change our lives and get something for
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ourselves regardless of her recovery. Her reaction was one of
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anger, but under the councellor's questioning she admitted
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that it hurt less to be angry at us then to face what she had
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done. As she sobbingly accepted our feelings and told us of
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her remorse we drew much closer together in our mutual
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concern. Louise and I, as we left the treatment center that
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night, both admitted that we were greatly relieved and looked
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forward to an improved life for ourselves.
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Going into the program the next day we looked forward to
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joining our extended family, which is how we regarded the
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other parents, residents, and staff. It was hard to believe
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the depth of experience and the change in outlook that we had
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accomplished in just two days. We had more hard work to do,
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but it felt good and represented growth. We covered such
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topics as communication skills; regrets, resentments and
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appreciations; symptoms leading to relapse; aftercare, AA and
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Alanon; and a contract with the addict. These subjects were
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covered in both discussion groups and movies and were
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interspersed with group therapy sessions. We really came to
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appreciate the group sessions because of the powerful way that
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it dealt with problems. It was far more effective than any of
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the more passive techniques. It made the difference between
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intellectually understanding a point and making it a part of
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yourself. Surprisingly, it was almost as effective when
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someone else was working as when you were.
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The highlight of the last day was a four hour pass for
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our daughter into the nearest major community. The two things
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she wanted to do were to go Christmas shopping (she got
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herself more coloring books, too) and go to a pizza parlor.
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After delivering her back to the treatment center we came back
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to the other world of fogged in airports and snowy passes, but
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got back to Seattle late the next day.
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Afterward:
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|
This first treatment of 6 weeks was not enough and Jenny
|
||
|
went back to drugs early the following spring. Then back into
|
||
|
treatment again at a treatment center for women in Seattle.
|
||
|
This didn't last either, but Louise and I were working with a
|
||
|
very experienced councilor and we had made plans and reserved
|
||
|
a spot for her in a very good treatment center in Colorado.
|
||
|
The next time she called for help Louise kept her on the phone
|
||
|
while I made a mad dash to South Seattle and collected her
|
||
|
from a phone booth in the small hours of the morning. We gave
|
||
|
her antihistamines to keep her drowsy until she and I could
|
||
|
leave Seattle by air for Denver. I rented a car and we drove
|
||
|
to Clearview (through a small snowstorm). She was suffering
|
||
|
from withdrawal (and I was suffering from exhaustion) by the
|
||
|
time we got there and I checked her in . This was an extended
|
||
|
stay of many months, but we did have one long weekend visit
|
||
|
with her.
|
||
|
She has now been off drugs for almost 5 years, is happily
|
||
|
married, and has 2 beautiful daughters. She has also gotten
|
||
|
her high school diploma and is taking courses at a Seattle
|
||
|
Community College.
|
||
|
|
||
|
==============================================================
|
||
|
A TRIP TO AUSTRALIA
|
||
|
OR: I CAME, I SAW, I STAYED
|
||
|
|
||
|
by Lotte Evans
|
||
|
|
||
|
Nineteen fifty-six was a rather momentuous year for me. I had come from
|
||
|
England where I spent a couple of fun-filled years working in a Cotton Mill in
|
||
|
Lancashire and I felt rather good being back in Vienna. I mean hey, anybody
|
||
|
would feel good being in Vienna, especially after working in a Mill. So there
|
||
|
I was enjoying myself when my younger sister informed me that she and her
|
||
|
husband were planning to emigrate to Australia.
|
||
|
|
||
|
My initial reaction was sort of, good on you, enjoy yourself and send me a
|
||
|
postcard. She looked at me in a speculative way and said, "Why dont you come
|
||
|
along?" That's when I uttered the immortal phrase "you must be kidding, me go
|
||
|
to that snake pit?" Shows what an ignorant person I was, as the sum total of
|
||
|
my knowledge about Australia was that is was the smallest continent with a lot
|
||
|
of different snakes, all of them poisonous.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Ilsa, my sister, and her husband Eric put in their application to emigrate
|
||
|
and kept telling me what a great life they were planning when they got to
|
||
|
Australia. But I was hard and did not take any notice. My plan was either to
|
||
|
go back to England, but only if I could get a job in or around London. Or if
|
||
|
that wasn't possible I rather fancied Paris. Alas, the only jobs available
|
||
|
for foreigners in London or Paris were for domestics. My mother found the
|
||
|
idea of me working as a domestic excruciatingly funny. I found her heartless
|
||
|
laughter and her "you, ha ha ha, doing housework, ha ha ha" rather painful.
|
||
|
|
||
|
But I had to admit that she was right. I mean a person who likes to take it
|
||
|
easy, read lots of books and spend two or three evenings a week going to the
|
||
|
theatre or the opera is not exactly cut out for a life of servitude.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Ilsa kept working away on my resistance for a couple of months with daily
|
||
|
statements like: "You know you dont like the winter, and Australia is a lovely
|
||
|
country full of sunshine" or "the salaries are not bad at all, you can save
|
||
|
and travel around the country." She developed a technique something similiar
|
||
|
to Chinese Water Torture: drip "its great out there" drip "lots of open
|
||
|
spaces" drip. After more and more drips of a similiar nature, I began to
|
||
|
weaken.
|
||
|
|
||
|
I started to think how it would be if I go to Australia first, see what sort
|
||
|
of a country it is, get naturalized, and then go and live in London. (Of
|
||
|
course that sort of sentence asks for the next one to start: "But little did I
|
||
|
realise..." But don't worry I shan't do that).
|
||
|
|
||
|
Now after this preamble let's get down to the nitty gritty. I got my
|
||
|
application form, duly filled it in, got an appointment to attend a medical
|
||
|
and nearly changed my mind about the whole business. This was based on my
|
||
|
hearty dislike of the first Australian I ever met, who was the doctor who took
|
||
|
my blood pressure. Actually he was quite good looking in that famous
|
||
|
sun-bronzed Aussie fashion. But when the nurse said "please look the other
|
||
|
way, doctor does not like it if the patients breathe on him," I thought, if
|
||
|
they are all such stupid (expletive deleted) over there I would rather stay at
|
||
|
home.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Fortunately the gentleman who interviewed me was quite charming and we hit it
|
||
|
off really well. He even congratulated me on my lovely Lancashire accent. (A
|
||
|
little flattery goes a long way with me.)
|
||
|
|
||
|
After I had been accepted I got rather busy reading up on Australia,
|
||
|
(especially about the snake situation). I also dilligently read all the
|
||
|
handouts which came with my acceptance. One of them described the Australian
|
||
|
accent as Cockney English, which later experience proved totally untrue. I
|
||
|
also got busy getting my trunk packed and all the other fun things necessary
|
||
|
(like quite a few vaccinations) if you plan to leave your home for what I
|
||
|
thought would be a stay of 5-6 years. I also talked my best friend into
|
||
|
coming with me. My sister and her husband had left six weeks before me and I
|
||
|
didnt really fancy travelling for a month on a ship all on my own.
|
||
|
|
||
|
After a stay in a depressing camp formerly used for displaced persons, we
|
||
|
travelled by train to Trieste, where we embarked on the good ship Aurelia.
|
||
|
There were approximately 1200 people on board, mainly Italians and
|
||
|
approximately 350 Austrians consisting of married couples with children, a
|
||
|
hundred single men and around twenty or so single girls. Now I know what you
|
||
|
all think at this point of my story, wow, what a good time she must have had!
|
||
|
Well, it wasn't at all like that. The food on board was so dreadful and there
|
||
|
was little of it, that one's favourite dream was not of romance but of a
|
||
|
decent meal.
|
||
|
|
||
|
To top it all off, shipboard life was so boring. A typical day started of with
|
||
|
a miniscule breakfast, after which one had to fight to get a shower. This was
|
||
|
because the Italians were constantly washing their clothes, which they did in
|
||
|
the shower cubicles. After this refreshing tussle the group I was friendly
|
||
|
with congregated on deck and thought of lunch. All I remember of that
|
||
|
was that there were no vegetables, only some pickled salad and some rather
|
||
|
sour wine.
|
||
|
|
||
|
For entertainment there was the music coming over the loud speakers, featuring
|
||
|
a rather small assortment of records. Some of the favourites were the
|
||
|
Rock-n-roll waltz, the Great Pretender and the best of them all was some
|
||
|
German ditty on Heimwehe (Homesickness). Ah, the sweet remembrance of it all.
|
||
|
Oh yes, there was also a swimming pool, where we spend most of our waking
|
||
|
moments. Did you know thinking of food and swimming makes you even more
|
||
|
hungry?
|
||
|
|
||
|
Around the pool the Italian mothers sat giving us disapproving looks because
|
||
|
of showing off so much of our bodies. Whilst we gave them dirty looks in
|
||
|
return because they were breast feeding and showing off their bosoms.
|
||
|
|
||
|
A terrific storm was another of the trip's highlights. Luckily I did not get
|
||
|
seasick. The bad weather lasted for three days, practically all of which I
|
||
|
spent on deck with other hardy souls. You see, there was a lot of wailing,
|
||
|
gnashing of teeth and throwing up below deck.
|
||
|
|
||
|
After four weeks of this fun and frolic we arrived in Freemantle, our first
|
||
|
port of call in Australia. We were supposed to stay there only overnight.
|
||
|
That was before inspectors found out that all the lifeboats were unseaworthy
|
||
|
and had to be repaired before we could sail to Melbourne.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Every evening the happy little boat repairers rested up from their toils in
|
||
|
the bar till all hours telling the boys about the great life in Australia and
|
||
|
showing them their pay packets. That was in the days when the pubs in
|
||
|
Australia closed at 6 p.m. This law did not apply to the ships bar, and some
|
||
|
of those workmen made good use of the freedom to drink till all hours, and
|
||
|
incidentally telling tall tales about life in the Australian Bush. They rather
|
||
|
enjoyed their spellbound audience.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Freemantle is close to Perth, the capital of Western Australia. We managed to
|
||
|
scratch the fare together to do a spot of sightseeing in Perth. I can't
|
||
|
remember a lot about this. I guess we were rather impatient to get to
|
||
|
Melbourne and sink our teeth into some of these steaks the boatbuilders were
|
||
|
boasting about. After seven days in Freemantle it took us another week to get
|
||
|
to our final destination.
|
||
|
|
||
|
I arrived in Melbourne on the 5th August 1956, hale and hearty, with my
|
||
|
trunkful of worldly goods and threepence in my pocket, little knowing that
|
||
|
within three months I would be married to one of those sun-bronzed Aussies
|
||
|
and not see Vienna again until 1983. But that, as they say, is another
|
||
|
story.
|
||
|
|
||
|
========================================================================
|
||
|
|
||
|
What Did You Call Me?
|
||
|
Or: My Mother Didn't Raise Her Boy To Be A Senior Citizen!
|
||
|
|
||
|
by Sam Weissman
|
||
|
|
||
|
I was surprised to find, when I passed 50 years of age, that in addition to
|
||
|
some physical changes, I was awarded a title. No, nothing like Royalty, or
|
||
|
professional distinction, but rather a symbolic name tag pinned on my chest.
|
||
|
I couldn't read it, but everyone else seemed to be able to. From what I
|
||
|
heard said, I found that I was no longer just an ordinary adult with
|
||
|
falling hair and expanding waist line, but rather a "Senior Citizen"!
|
||
|
|
||
|
Some people, seemingly with more imagination changed it to "Golden Ager".
|
||
|
After doing some research on that odd combination of words, I
|
||
|
gathered that what they intended them to mean was that I was entering
|
||
|
a wonderfully new era in my life. That surprised me as I still had fallen
|
||
|
arches, puffed when going up stairs, and found it difficult to bend
|
||
|
down and tie my shoelaces.
|
||
|
|
||
|
I found it puzzling as to why others felt called upon to burden me with
|
||
|
odd names just because I had passed a certain birthday. I thought
|
||
|
about it for a long time and finally came to the conclusion that they
|
||
|
were offering me a distinction of some sort. Why? Just because I now
|
||
|
have grey hair? It couldn't be tied to the quantity of said hair, because
|
||
|
I am sadly lacking on that score. I did a mirror test and the results
|
||
|
were disillusioning, but I was never a great beauty to begin with. The
|
||
|
bottom line seemed to be that I am just an adult who has matured.
|
||
|
|
||
|
So, in order to set matters straight, I have started to wear a name tag,
|
||
|
an actual one. It shows my real name, lack of rank, and social
|
||
|
security number. Whenever any one starts to open his mouth to label
|
||
|
me with those fancy tags, I just turn off my hearing aid!
|
||
|
|
||
|
Another thing that surprised me about this aging process (you see, I
|
||
|
have been brainwashed! Otherwise where did I pick up that "aging
|
||
|
process"?), is my discovery that my group is being investigated?
|
||
|
Yes, investigated! But, mind you, it is all very scientific and is
|
||
|
called "Geriatric Research". Sociologists seem to be very interested
|
||
|
in finding out what makes "us" (there it goes, an exclusionary tag)
|
||
|
tick.
|
||
|
|
||
|
We (get used to it) are supposed to be a special catagory of human
|
||
|
beings, along with criminal types, the disabled, and the mentally
|
||
|
incompetent, that merit intensive academic study so that we may be
|
||
|
"understood", and our "special needs" catered to.
|
||
|
|
||
|
I have been in favor of science, and its advancement, but I find
|
||
|
myself rebelling at the thought of the next sociologist I meet looking
|
||
|
at me as if I was a specimen under a microscope. Luckily I don't
|
||
|
happen to know any sociologists. I do however, intend to write to
|
||
|
one of their learned journals and tell them to bug off! I just want
|
||
|
to live my "aging" life as normally as possible thank you.
|
||
|
|
||
|
I will conclude (yes, it was bound to happen), by making a confession.
|
||
|
An evidence of my weakness, and lack of character; but I will just
|
||
|
blurt it out. I get a warm, emotional high when my granddaughters
|
||
|
call me "Grandpa". Now that its out in the open, what a relief!
|
||
|
|
||
|
Grandpa Sam.
|
||
|
|
||
|
===============================================================
|
||
|
end cybersenior.1.3
|