GrumpyCanadian I no longer have any delusions about being objective where this case is concerned. I don’t know if I feel more like I should be furious at the turn of events, or break down in tears just thinking about what the child went through and is continuing to go through.
Thats exactly where I am. At first it was one of those “distance yourself from it” things but I’m a parent. I know what kids are like at the little girls age. I have a few of my own memories from then as well. I have full well knowledge of how family dynamics went with my parents and with myself as a parent, and the emotions, events, and everything related felt. It’s not hard at all for me to put myself in that car with my mom on an “outing” and be making stops along the road and doing things, and having mom have me hop out of the car and say “I’ll be back just wait here for me”, and that’s where it all breaks down. Mom doesn’t come back. No one comes back. The day passes. It starts to get dark. There are mosquitoes and bugs everywhere. There’s no food, no water, nothing to sit on, just cars flying by on a highway. I don’t know where I am. I’ve never been here before. I can’t see any houses or people to ask for help. I know I’m not supposed to go by highways or roads because they are dangerous. Mom isn’t coming back. Its dark. The night passes and it feels like a thousand hours. Howls of animals. Noises in the bushes. Trucks and cars flying by on the highway 100 feet away. The sunrise finally comes around, it’s finally not as cold but its quiet, its early, there’s still no one. Mom hasn’t come back. The sun comes out and its hot. I don’t have anything to drink. I am getting hungry. I couldn’t sleep. This continues all day. Still no one. How long have I been out here. Is my mom ok. Where’s dad? Where’s grandma? Why didn’t anyone come yet? I’m scared. I don’t know what to do. I’ve never been alone more than a few minutes, how long has it been? — this continues, not for just one day but for almost 72 hours – Losing strength. Nothing to drink. So thirsty. Bug bites. Sun burn. I hurt. I can’t sleep. I’m so scared. Where’s my mommy???? — then finally, the police and the emergency people come, ambulances, so much help, everyone looking for me, but where’s my mommy, where’s my daddy?
Thats the story that keeps playing out in my head. I mean I know its not perfectly accurate - I’m not a little girl from her family in Quebec and I never was. But I was a little kid and I raised my offspring - I think my insight isn’t that far off - and that’s what moves me from impartial observer to so SO angry at everything she did. I am honestly a little surprised they actually declared her NCR - with the threats she had made before she did what she did, and her actions afterward, spoke more to “angry and planned revenge” not “mentally entirely checked out” at least from the information we were given in the public eye – but from the case it sounds like they were somewhat able to track an ongoing downward mental spiral that continued to get worse. I guess at the end of the day if the mother gets the help she truly needs to become better, and the family is able to support the little girl and help her eventually feel safe and secure again, the outcome is acceptable - and we really as a society have no choice but to accept it - we’ve deemed the system in charge of these things as capable and reliable - and its my hope they did actually “get it right”.
From the article:
A couple days after the toddler was found, the mother’s lawyer, Olivier Béliveau, said his client had been living in distress and needed help. She’s being detained at a psychiatric hospital in Montreal, the Institut national de psychiatrie légale Philippe-Pinel.
I know we don’t lock people up in the psych and throw the keys away now - but - I hope they keep her there for a while and really try and understand her issues and if she would be a danger if out again. I worry for the little girl that this could become one of those abduction/kidnapping stories in 2 years if the mom gets out and is back in public and claims to be all better, and has another break sometime where she goes off her meds, doesn’t tell anyone, and decides she HAS to have her little girl back.