heartbreaking

Posted by trish on Oct 15, 2012 in Blog | 0 comments

This evening I overheard a conversation between a young girl and her mother.  Actually, I only heard the girl’s side of it because she was on the telephone to her mum.  She was yelling at the top of her voice about 5m from where I was sitting.  At first I just heard the emotion in her voice, and then I heard the words.

Some families really have  rough time, don’t they?  I don’t know anything about this girl, or her parents, or her situation, but she sounded desperately unhappy and frustrated, and she said she felt worthless in her mother’s eyes… and all I could think was gosh, I hope I never find myself on the end of a phone call like that from one of my kids.  I hope that even when we are going through that phase that everyone goes through (when you’re a teenager and your parents are Ruining Your Life), that we can at least be certain that we all love each other, no matter what.

I went over to her and offered her some help.  I wanted her to calm down, to take a break from this conversation which was clearly going around and around and nowhere at all.  I told her she could come with me, just for half an hour, and we could talk and have a cup of tea and maybe later she might feel like going home again.  She did calm down, and she said she would be OK, and then she left.  I don’t suppose I’ll ever see her again but I really, really hope she went home and that whatever was said on the phone – by her and by her mother – can be set aside for 12 hours so they can both get some sleep, with the young girl safe in her bed down the hall from her mother.