Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul Letters by Jack Canfield

Author:Jack Canfield [Canfield, Jack; Hansen, Mark Victor; Kirberger, Kimberly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4532-7931-1
Publisher: Chicken Soup for the Soul Publishing
Published: 2012-10-12T20:25:00+00:00

A Closer Family

Nothing can make everything okay after a hard experience, but the simple act of giving a hug can come pretty close.

Hannah Boyd

Dear Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul,

I am writing to thank you for the story “Healing with Love”* by Cecile Wood in your new edition of Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul III. As soon as I started reading the first line and the words “reform school” leaped off the page, I knew I was going to be able to relate to the story.

My brother was dealing with a drug problem last year and had to be checked in to a center for kids with drug problems. He was eighteen at the time. Being at the center made him a whole new person. Before he went, we couldn’t even speak to him. We would ask him how his day went, and he would respond with only a nod. He never even said “Hi” or “Bye” to us. We felt completely shut out of his life.

He was allowed no family contact at all for the first three weeks of the program. After the three weeks were over, my whole family went to visit him. He was waiting for us outside and greeted us all with big hugs. I was shocked and didn’t hide it. I asked him what they had done to him, and he told me that he had just “grown up.”

That entire day he couldn’t stop talking about how much he enjoyed being there and thanking my parents for having sent him there. I was so happy for him. It felt like I finally had my brother back.

In the story in the book, Cecile wrote about not being able to have a meal at the center where she was visiting her brother without crying. I had the same experience. When I had lunch with my brother and the other residents later that day, it was a struggle for me to hold back my tears. It was sad to look at the kids working so hard to get themselves together and pull themselves back up. I wondered what had brought each of them down so low to begin with.

Not all of the kids were alone that weekend; there were some other parents there, too. Everyone seemed genuinely happy and proud of their sons or daughters. There were a lot of tears shed.

My brother and I were closer after that weekend. We would talk on the phone all the time. He called me once a week, and we would talk for hours and hours. I guess we had a lot of catching up to do.

He’s nineteen now, and he just finished his treatment program. He’s been sober and off drugs for almost an entire year now. I’m so happy for him, and my family feels closer than we’ve ever been. Yesterday I made my brother read the story “Healing with Love.” He read it out loud in front of my parents and my twenty-two-year-old brother. He couldn’t finish it because he started crying halfway through.

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