A Family's Grief.

It is easy to imagine how a parent would feel about a missing child; sad, lost, guilty. That is exactly what has happened to Beth. After 6 months of Ben being gone, she has returned home from Chicago but she rarely gets out of bed. She has stopped taking care of her remaining children and has stopped being a loving wife. I was interested to see the statistics about marriage after a child disappears. One article says that the only 16 percent of couples who experience the death of a child end up getting divorced. I wonder if it is the same for an abducted child? This article also says that “While the death of one’s child definitely places stress on a marriage, we believe the divorce rate is so low because of the commitment parents have to survive their tragedy as a shared experience." It doesn’t seem like Beth is trying what-so-ever to share grieve with her husband or any family member. For example, her freak-out reaction to her in-laws still getting Christmas presents for Ben even though he is missing. I have to say I can relate to her feeling upset about this… I know that the family is just trying to remain positive about Ben’s return, but getting him Christmas presents?? It seems a little disrespectful to do when the mother of the child is obviously struggling so much.    

(Another interesting fact I came across about child abductions: The US Department of Justice reports that 203,900 children were the victims of family abductions and only 58,200 children were the victims of non-family abductions in 2002. Should be suspect of all family members we have been introduced to thus far…?)

But what would a seven year old child feel about a missing sibling? Chapter 10 is so touching… because you get insight into Beth’s oldest son, Vincent’s point of view. Christmas is coming up and Vincent has decided to ask Santa to bring Ben back. He believes that by asking for his brother back for Christmas all of the adults will be happy, mostly his mom. To his surprise it seems to make everyone mad. This poor little boy has lost his brother and in a sense his mother to mourning. He seems to feel so alone and even avoids coming home after school. I just want to scoop him up into my arms and bring him to my house where I could make sure he was fed and paid attention to. Poor little guy!  :(