Today I had a real Whiskey Tango Foxtrot moment. Some may know that Terri and I have an adult handicapped child. He is now 50 years and goes three days a week to a center. He goes there more for his own social outlet and as a break for us. He was much easier to raise than our "normal" child.
Any way we pick him up at 2 in the afternoon the three days a week and have developed a casual frienship with another parent. I am just going to call him "M" and I think you will see why I am not using his name.
Now M is only a few years younger than myself at 73 years and his daughter is 31. She sustained a severe brain injury at birth. Her mother could not deal with having an imperfect child and left them. M raised her all on his on.
Anyway, if we got to the center early enough, M and I and even Terri would chat with him, It seemed that he really enjoyed to chats but, they had to stop the second that his daughter came into the lobby. He had to jump up in mid sentence and cater to her. We saw that she was a true handful, and had quite a temper if anybody else tried to interact with M in her presence. One day a couple months ago they were outsidse on the sidewalk and as I approached them to enter the building she actually attacked me. M always had to calm her down before she got into the car as she would kick on the dash and anything else within her reach.
Anyway we just found out that during the time that we were in Oregon he attempted a murder suicide but slashing his and her wrists. M according to the newspaper report was also having his own medical problems that we were unaware of.
It is such a shame that he didn't have someone to reach out to. Even for a few days break. Maybe if he had had someone that he could reach out to this would not have happened. I just wish that he had confided more to us. Maybe we could have helped in some small way.
Some people reach a breaking point and I guess they just don't know where or to whom to turn to.
As to their injuries they both survived. She is in some kind of home somewhere and M is in jail on murder charges. apparently both are still recovering from the injuries .