latest news fresh from Devilville...

Its been a while and I know you have been anxious about what's been happening in the life
of the kid for the last while. Well, would you believe is been fairly normal, I say fairly, because
I don't see anything normal with this kid.

She's been allowed back up town to 'hang' as long her best mate is with her and we check
in with her every 2 hours. Yes, she thinks we're nuts and we probably are, but howandever
it works. She's met up with some guy called T whose entire vocabulary consists of the following words, in no particular order:

"Legend, Respect, Pathera"

I don't think he's big on talking. He's never seen without a bottle of Jack Daniels. Quite a catch for any young girl, methinks. Anyhew, it seems the more we like any guy she's seeing, the less she likes him. There's no chance of us liking this orangatang so she'll probably marry him or something like that. I can see the bridal gown already, black with a hint of black. She'll be like an extra from BeetleJuice.

I think though, being quite an articulate girl, she may soon tire of the words legend and respect and move onto someone with a braincell. She appeared to have a good day 'hanging' though.
She turned blue a couple of times while re-telling all that happened and I mean all. My ears were bleeding!

She skipped a couple of days last week due to stress over study and the junior cert. While we innocently thought putting her to bed would equal her going to sleep, she was lining up the books to study?
She's a bit of a nocteral creature, not that this helps the following morning when she's like the creature from the black lagoon.

We've set up a study timetable and so far its going well. When I say that, I mean its stuck up on the wall and that's about it. She was supposed to do maths with me yesterday but was too busy imitating Julie Andrews in the sound of music by making trouser out of teatowels and tops out of socks. I kid you not, I was tucking her in last night and there was a big cut down the duvet cover. I'm convinced that if they were black, she'd be wearing them and singing "raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens "!

I've stopped buying anything black as it appears to grow legs and walk out of my wardrobe.

We had our appointment with the Child Guidance clinic yesterday, finally. Someone had cancelled, so she was next on the list.
She never opened her mouth the whole time we were there. We explained what had been happening in relation to the cutting herself and then the trip to the A&E. She asked if we'd mind waiting outside while she spoke with the kid.

I had images of her wrestling the kid to the ground while trying to get her to talk. However, about 40 minutes afterwards she called us back in and told us the score. She reckons the kid is suffering from depression, as to the level of it or what she needs to do in relation to dealing with it, she recommended a psychcharist who would be able to assess whether counselling would help or she would need medication.

The doctor said its quite normal to suffer form this after losing someone you love and its part of the natural process of grieveing.

At least its a start. Solas have already told us that they would do the counselling if we wanted. The doctor also mentioned a support group for parents and guardians which was starting up in the Mater in February and thought it might be good for us to attend.

I'm not big on group therapy, I'm not big on therapy full stop, but the whole group aspect isn't something I'd feel comfortable with.

We'll see how things go.

Oh, the spirit came back. Remember that portal she opened, well, the other night I could have swore I heard her calling me. Went in to check on her and when I told her this, she got that wide eyed look and glanced around the room.

"Do you get that smell?"
"What smell?"
"The corn beef smell?"
"Nope"
"Its the spirit!"

While trying not to burst out laughing , I managed to keep a straight face and ask:

"A corn beef spirit?"

The following morning, she was having problems with the shower, which she blamed on the corn-beef spirit. So, at least we know he's clean if he's always in the shower. Just hope he's not a perv.