Scent of Cedar *
Well-Known Member
So, after our truly stellar Christmas Eve and prior to our equally stellar Christmas Day dinner with friends, we learned that 14 year old granddaughter (the child just given into the temporary custody of her aunt) disappeared around 8 p.m. Christmas Eve night. She was with her 15 year old female cousin. The aunt dropped both girls off at the Omnimax,, which is in the heart of the City, to see a movie. The girls bussed or taxied to a movie theater at the mall. The aunt called to check on them, learned they were at the mall, and went to get them. Did some screaming (which I would have done, too) and dropped them at the Omnimax again. (The girls' story was that they thought she knew they meant to see the particular movie playing at the theater in the mall.) The aunt had driven something like 90 miles to attend a Christmas Eve function, and had only brought the girls along in the first place so they would not be alone.
As soon as the aunt left, the girls decided to run away, ditched the cell phone, and took off.
The aunt discovered they were missing soon after, but the girls were nowhere to be found. The police were contacted. A missing person's report was filed. Around 2 a.m. this morning everyone was frantic. Security cameras show the girls walking out of the Omnimax and through a skywalk (very cold in that city) and then...they were just gone.
The girls showed up IN THAT VERY SKYWALK, unharmed, at noon today.
No explanation for where they were until 1:30 a.m. on this below zero night. Claim that at 1:30, they went to an old friend of granddaughters, where they stayed until 6 a.m. Then, they went somewhere else and finally, to Great Grandmother's house, around 10 o'clock this morning. (Which, according to Great Grandma in a telephone conversation this evening, they did. Great Grandma is 85. She was happy to see them, and had no clue they were missing.) They left her house in a taxi. (So...when am I going to learn to stop sending cash money for Christmas? Very pricey to taxi the 10 to 15 miles from Great Grandma's to the City. Grrrr....) difficult child daughter and the aunt had been chasing around everywhere they could think of and finally, in a last, desperate effort to trace exactly where the girls had disappeared, returned to the Skywalk, where they spotted the girls.
So (newly christened difficult child) granddaughter can no longer live with the aunt, who will not have her and is so disgusted she may send her own daughter to live with the father in California. difficult child granddaughter is currently in the Shelter with difficult child mom. (Which, as promised, did allow difficult child daughter back after her two day suspension for fighting. What kind of shelter that is, exactly, which puts a woman at risk out on the streets for two days? And then takes her back? I don't know.)
Which means difficult child granddaughter no longer has anywhere to live. So, we either take difficult child granddaughter right along with difficult child daughter or difficult child granddaughter, who refuses to live with, or have anything to do with, her mother, will need to go into foster care.
So, husband and I had another one of those evenings where husband begins picking at the one or two small faults I do have. Shortly thereafter, Bad Cedar arrived on her broom.
husband was able to resolve his hostility quite readily.
:O)
We know we cannot control granddaughter. If this aunt could not do it, I think it cannot be done without counseling and a very strict, very restrictive, environment. There will be no medical insurance for difficult child granddaughter in the state where we are.
So, difficult child granddaughter will have to go to foster care. I talked to her at some length tonight. She is so angry and confused and understandably traumatized. She would like to come here. I had to tell her I did not think we could handle her, and thought foster care might be the best thing.
I never in a million years believed I would tell a grandchild of mine that.
difficult child daughter has arranged for counseling for granddaughter and herself through the shelter. I am going to try to reach the counselor granddaughter saw recently through her school in relation to the fight to be released into the aunt's custody. She feels she trusts, and would be able to talk honestly with him, about what she should do, next.
As long as it does not involve living with her mother. Not that I blame her.
The neighbor is still agitating to drive up to Minnesota to collect difficult child daughter and bring her here, because he is like, head over heels. I do believe his jets were cooled a little over the possibility of 14 year old difficult child granddaughter riding shotgun.
It's so ridiculous a situation that if I watched it on television? I would just have to laugh!
At least then I could turn the channel.
And finally, my sister FB me today, assuring me that all is well between us, I shouldn't worry, and wishing me and husband (whom she mentioned by name, adding "ie" to the end) a Merry Christmas.
Remember that scene in Christmas Vacation where Chevy Chase yells "Holy cow, halleluiah, pass the Tylenol!"
Yep.
Cedar
As soon as the aunt left, the girls decided to run away, ditched the cell phone, and took off.
The aunt discovered they were missing soon after, but the girls were nowhere to be found. The police were contacted. A missing person's report was filed. Around 2 a.m. this morning everyone was frantic. Security cameras show the girls walking out of the Omnimax and through a skywalk (very cold in that city) and then...they were just gone.
The girls showed up IN THAT VERY SKYWALK, unharmed, at noon today.
No explanation for where they were until 1:30 a.m. on this below zero night. Claim that at 1:30, they went to an old friend of granddaughters, where they stayed until 6 a.m. Then, they went somewhere else and finally, to Great Grandmother's house, around 10 o'clock this morning. (Which, according to Great Grandma in a telephone conversation this evening, they did. Great Grandma is 85. She was happy to see them, and had no clue they were missing.) They left her house in a taxi. (So...when am I going to learn to stop sending cash money for Christmas? Very pricey to taxi the 10 to 15 miles from Great Grandma's to the City. Grrrr....) difficult child daughter and the aunt had been chasing around everywhere they could think of and finally, in a last, desperate effort to trace exactly where the girls had disappeared, returned to the Skywalk, where they spotted the girls.
So (newly christened difficult child) granddaughter can no longer live with the aunt, who will not have her and is so disgusted she may send her own daughter to live with the father in California. difficult child granddaughter is currently in the Shelter with difficult child mom. (Which, as promised, did allow difficult child daughter back after her two day suspension for fighting. What kind of shelter that is, exactly, which puts a woman at risk out on the streets for two days? And then takes her back? I don't know.)
Which means difficult child granddaughter no longer has anywhere to live. So, we either take difficult child granddaughter right along with difficult child daughter or difficult child granddaughter, who refuses to live with, or have anything to do with, her mother, will need to go into foster care.
So, husband and I had another one of those evenings where husband begins picking at the one or two small faults I do have. Shortly thereafter, Bad Cedar arrived on her broom.
husband was able to resolve his hostility quite readily.
:O)
We know we cannot control granddaughter. If this aunt could not do it, I think it cannot be done without counseling and a very strict, very restrictive, environment. There will be no medical insurance for difficult child granddaughter in the state where we are.
So, difficult child granddaughter will have to go to foster care. I talked to her at some length tonight. She is so angry and confused and understandably traumatized. She would like to come here. I had to tell her I did not think we could handle her, and thought foster care might be the best thing.
I never in a million years believed I would tell a grandchild of mine that.
difficult child daughter has arranged for counseling for granddaughter and herself through the shelter. I am going to try to reach the counselor granddaughter saw recently through her school in relation to the fight to be released into the aunt's custody. She feels she trusts, and would be able to talk honestly with him, about what she should do, next.
As long as it does not involve living with her mother. Not that I blame her.
The neighbor is still agitating to drive up to Minnesota to collect difficult child daughter and bring her here, because he is like, head over heels. I do believe his jets were cooled a little over the possibility of 14 year old difficult child granddaughter riding shotgun.
It's so ridiculous a situation that if I watched it on television? I would just have to laugh!
At least then I could turn the channel.
And finally, my sister FB me today, assuring me that all is well between us, I shouldn't worry, and wishing me and husband (whom she mentioned by name, adding "ie" to the end) a Merry Christmas.
Remember that scene in Christmas Vacation where Chevy Chase yells "Holy cow, halleluiah, pass the Tylenol!"
Yep.
Cedar