Distress in The Family

Yesterday I went out with Lastri to the Franchise Expo at JHCC. On our way back, she met an ex-colleague, and later she told me about another ex-colleague of her who got pregnant and distressed. I told her then about a cousin of mine whose first boyfriend, whom apparently she loved very much, left her with gonorrhea. She then met another man who was very kind to her and willing to marry her. The problem was, he was a moslem and she Christian. They married and had a beautiful son. However, her parents didn't like the marriage and terrorized her, asked her to leave her husband. When she was pregnant 8 month with child, she went out with her mother on a motorbike, and she asked her mother to stop because she was thirsty and wanted some ice-juice. Her mother dropped her and left her, so she had to walk home in the hot sun for 1,5 kms. When the son was about 1 year old, she came to stay at my sister's house, for almost 1 month. She tried to stay away from her husband as long as possible. My sister, however, told her to come back to her husband, as two people in marriage should not live apart. When the husband came to pick her and the son up, my mother said goodbye to the child, "Dadah, Michael." The husband was shocked. "Michael? His name is Achmad." But she had told us the name was Michael. She herself always called him 'Mike'. When her mother died and her family blamed her: "Your mother died because of you. She thought of you too much." (Can't believe these people are my relatives.)

Another cousin of mine had a different problem. When she was a child, she lived with the grand-parents. After they died, she lived again with her parents, but her mother didn't like a girl. She became a very sensitive person. At high school, a boy liked her, but everytime they were dating, the mother always followed them. The boy left, and she met another man at workplace who later married her. At this point, she had become a regular visitor to a psychiatrist and consumed drugs; but didn't tell the man and his family. When her mother-in-law found out, she told her son to divorce her, despite the fact she had already pregnant. Her distress became worse, but a boy was born and he took him away. Whenever she wanted to see her son, she must contact his lawyer and he would give his answer through me (Why me???). During the meeting, she was prohibited to give the boy anything. Later her family persuaded her to forget the boy. In the first years, we still saw her looking at baby's clothes, but now she doesn't do that anymore. The boy must be 11 or 12 years old by now. We took her to see a priest once, but after looking at her, the priest said that there was nothing wrong with her. I myself believe that the problem lies with her parents. I see her almost everyday as her father comes here during workdays and always takes her along, for it's better not to leave her alone at home with her mother; and her father always tells her what to do. "Sit here. Don't sit there." Things like that. (I'm glad my father doesn't like that.) I wonder why she has to take her medicine everyday. I myself don't believe in medicine. Yesterday Lastri told me that she perhaps suffers Schizophrenia and therefore should take her medicine every day. Daily she busies herself with knitting.

On the happy news, I finished the last 2 episodes of City Lights last night. It's a part of 'Christmas Lights, Northern Lights, City Lights' boxset dvd. All 3 are with the same cast: Robson Green, Mark Benton, Nicola Stephenson, and Sian Reeves (except in Christmas Lights, where Pauline is played by Maxine Peake). It's about 2 families lived next to each other where the husband are best friends and the wives are sisters. The husbands always try to compete each other. It's a comedy drama, but a thriller aspect has been added to City Lights, where the husbands witnessed a murder and the family must be moved away from Manchester under protection programme. All 3 series are very entertaining and I giggled a lot. The last episode of City Lights has unpredictable twists, which I enjoyed very much.