recommendations I have received concerning you and this mental clinic, and despite how beautiful your building and location are," your grandmother Jackie Lee began,
"I understand. Mrs, Montgomery." I said, taking my seat.
"I'm sure you're wondering why I didn't return to my first married name or even my maiden name. My daughter was very fond of my second husband. Winston Montgomery. He adopted her and gave her his name. and I thought for the sake of simplicity, to avoid confusion..."
"Of course."
"I thought I should tell you that right away," she said.
"I understand completely," I said. "You made a wise decision." "I would never keep my third husband's name." she said, pursing her lips so hard, it brought little spots of white at the corners of her mouth, "Dr. Anderson told me he has given you everything, so you are familiar with all that horror. I expect."
"I am, somewhat, yes."
She opened her purse and took out a frilled silk handkerchief and brought it to her eyes even though I didn't see any tears.
"I've done the best I can dealing with this. What can anyone expect when a woman learns her husband has seduced, really raped her daughter in their own home, right under her very eyes practically?"
"It is quite overwhelming." I agreed.
"And Grace." she said, shaking her head and sighing, "hiding her pregnancy from me all that time until it was far too late to do anything about it." She paused and focused sharply an me as she leaned a bit forward, "Can von explain that to me? I never had a sensible explanation from Dr. Anderson for her behavior."
"Well, of course without speaking with Grace and exploring her troubles, it's difficult. Mrs, Montgomery. I can give you some classic reasons, which might very well be her reasons."
"What? What reason could anyone have for such behavior?" she practically pounced.
"First, of course, there's guilt. Too often women assume full or most of the responsibility for such things. To alleviate their own guilt and responsibility, some men often make them feel that way."
He would." she said, spitting the words disdainfully at the floor.
"And if you have an impressionable young woman who has been through some additional mental crisis, she is more vulnerable to such chicanery."
"Chicanery. Exactly." she said, nodding, her eyes brightening with the way I sympathized with her situation.
"So keeping all that in mind, it wouldn't be all that unexpected for her not to hide her pregnancy so much as to go into complete self-denial."
"What do you mean by complete self-denial?"
"Try to convince herself it wasn't true, ignore the symptoms, and succeed enough at that to justify not telling you for a long time, as hard as it is for vou to understand. Mrs, Montgomery."
"Jackie Lee. please."
"Jackie Lee. It's possible your daughter in all sense of the word actually believed she wasn't pregnant."
"Madness, utter madness. She does belong here."
"I saw from a note in her records that afterward you encouraged this in a way by pretending the child was yours. Am I correct that you actually simulated a pregnancy to persuade people it was so?"
She looked surprised that I knew that, but it was something that stood out in Dr. Anderson's report.
"I did what I did for her," she snapped back at me. "I was protecting her. You don't know how cruel and biting people are there. It was difficult enough trying to find her a decent man with whom she could develop a relationship. Imagine what this sort of sordid news would have done. I might as well have shipped her off to Somalia or some such godforsaken place."
I just nodded. Some people take that for agreement. and for the moment I could see it was better she assumed I approved of all she had done. In my experience, if you don't let parents, especially parents, come to their own conclusions as to their responsibility for the child's illnesses and problems, they will resent you and refuse to accept. Acceptance is the beginning of recovery.
There I go again, being the doctor. Sorry.
After I read the references to Jackie Lee's behavior. I had spoken with Dr. Anderson, of course, and he went into some detail about this cover-up Jackie Lee had created. He told me she became so absorbed in her own efforts to fool the public that, he thought, she had fooled herself as well. At least for a little while. He believed it contributed significantly to Graces current depression and introversion. The truth is that the way he described your grandmother's behavior made it sound as if she should have been brought here as the patient and not your mother.
Now he was worried about the child, the little boy named Linden, growing up believing his grandmother was his mother. Dr