That Went Well: Adventures in Caring for My Sister by Dougan Terrell Harris

Author:Dougan, Terrell Harris [Dougan, Terrell Harris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hyperion
Published: 2009-01-06T08:00:00+00:00

Shall We Begin—Again?

So if you’re up for ghost stories, I have to tell you this. Right after we got back from Hawaii, while Irene was being evaluated over at the institute, Paul and I were having our dinner in front of the television in our library. Shelves of books line the walls of this room. All of a sudden, a book made its way out of the bookshelf right above my head and fell on me. It really hurt. I rubbed my head and held the book. Paul had watched the whole thing, and all he could say was, “Jesus H. Christ!” How could one book make its way out of the shelf?

I looked at the book. It was a compilation of plays. The first one listed was Berkeley Square by John Balderston, about an American who goes to London and switches places with his ancestors of two centuries past. It was Dad’s favorite play. I think he was trying to keep his promise to contact me if he possibly could. And time travel was his favorite subject. I would like to say here, for the record, in case certain ghosts are reading this, that it was a pretty clumsy gesture and the lump on the top of my head took two days to go down. Either Dad was telling me that he’d made contact, that time travel is possible, or maybe he was just telling me to go to London and stop trying to fix Irene. But Irene was due to get out of the institute in a few days. So I thanked Dad and put the book on a lower shelf.

Irene’s evaluation, followed by recommendations from the professionals, showed me that I had been running a very strange and, frankly, stupid program. Poor Dana had never had any backups to give her time off. She had never had any training in behavior modification, which is now standard procedure. Irene controlled Dana with every trick she knew, and it wasn’t helping Irene one bit. Her social worker encouraged me to apply to one of the behavior modification group homes. I did as she suggested. It would probably be the best thing for Irene, and that had to be my priority.

Looking back on it, all I really needed to do was get Dana into some good training and hire some backup help for her. It would have been a much smarter move. But, as usual, I listened to the professionals. After all, this is their business. And after all, these group homes all over the state, run by several different service providers, truly are a godsend to most families and to the mentally disabled people who want their own independence. I kept hoping the system would work for Irene as well.

I am very grateful for professional advice, sometimes. I am glad the pros are around when I need them. My problem as Irene’s sister is that I never know if my instincts are right or if I am nuts and the professionals are right.

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