Chapter 23 - Patricia tells me what she thought of me
Eli’s grandmother Patricia had been polite for years.
After the case, she stopped.
“You were gone too much.”
“I know.”
“No, I don’t think you did.”
I stared.
She continued:
“You believed paying attention meant knowing his grades and doctors.”
“I knew more than that.”
“Yes. You loved him.”
“Then what?”
“You trusted the adult version of every conflict.”
That landed.
“What does that mean?”
“If Simone said Eli had an attitude, you heard adult explanation first. When Eli said she was mean, you heard child emotion.”
I looked down.
“That’s normal.”
“Sometimes.”
She nodded.
“But children are also witnesses to their own lives.”
There.
I did not need to treat every complaint as fact.
I needed to stop treating adulthood as automatic credibility.
Patricia said:
“Lauren would have yelled at you.”
I almost smiled.
“Probably.”
“Then she would have made you dinner.”
“Yes.”
We both cried.
No one used Lauren to win.
May you like
That was the difference.
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