Image by Markus Winkler from Pixabay
“See, Grandma, there's a lot of reasons I love you, but this is important,” eight-year-old Edwina Ludlow said, “and this goes as much for Papa, and almost as much for Cousin Harry and Cousin Maggie, but you know, they're special, but they're not y'all.
“But, see, there are a lot of people in the world – including my own dead parents and the foster parents that are going to die in prison like they are supposed to and a whole bunch of the rest justice hasn't caught up with – who treat taking care of children like it is the application for the worst job but it was the only one they could get with their skills and they lied on the application and needed the money 'cuz they really didn't have any skills and I know because I was there and so were all my cousins and siblings!”
Mrs. Thalia Ludlow took a moment to think, and then let Edwina see the tears in her eyes.
“That was a lot to go through, and I'm sorry,” she said.
“I had to fight for my life and to be a person!” Edwina said.
“I know, Edwina. That was bad.”
“It was!” Edwina said.
“Do you feel that it is better now?” Mrs. Ludlow said.
“Yeah, I do,” Edwina said as she snuggled into her grandmother's lap, “because I know you and Papa and our big Lee cousins love me and I'm safe and I can be myself!”
Mrs. Ludlow kissed Edwina on the forehead and snuggled her, and then watched her granddaughter go running back into the joys of childhood with her six adopted siblings – Capt. R.E. and Mrs. Ludlow had adopted their seven grandchildren, and they would grow up together, safe and loved.
Mrs. Ludlow also knew her husband needed a hug … she knew that look...
“I am seeing red all over again,” he said. “It is like it was yesterday … what my grandchildren had to go through because their parents failed them because their parents' parents failed them … but just the cruelty of the world around them, too!”
Mrs. Ludlow wrapped her arms around her husband, and listened to his heart rate slowly dropping.
“I'm going to tell you something I've only said aloud to Major K.D. Mueller with whom I've done all this work in the past eight weeks,” Capt. Ludlow said, “although I answered it partially when Eleanor asked me in January. She worked out that I already had 20 Good Years in the military before she was born and could have retired with full benefits then, and so she asked why I didn't just retire then and gather her and the rest of as they were born, and I told her that's not how the law works, because biological parents have rights in the law that grandparents do not.”
Ten-year-old Andrew Ludlow, being of extremely sensitive hearing and deeply attuned to his grandfather's voice, quickly went and got eleven-year-old Eleanor to come listen.
“I'm scared,” he said, “but I feel like we need the whole answer.”
“Yeah, I think so,” Eleanor said. “I have looked it up since and you know Papa doesn't lie, but he figures we're real young and doesn't realize we're kinda hard like Edwina, but not as loud. So there's more, and we need to know.”
“I thought that was the reason too,” Mrs. Ludlow said, “but I also knew you were going for whatever special enhancements you could get, because Eleanor and Andrew were hardly alone for long.”
“The best I could do every year was get folks into rehab so their children would not be born drug addicted – I paid for seven good vacations for them so my grandchildren could have a chance at life!” the captain growled, “and then I re-deployed so that my children would have a chance at life after they got over the high of a cute little one and then went back to the drugs. When your children become your grandchildren's worst enemies, and you decide to choose your grandchildren over your children and their enemies become your enemies!”
“The problem is that evil is the enemy of all good,” Mrs. Ludlow said, “and if it gets into our families, it still is what it is. We do know addiction is a disease process, but it is not like they were not given access to opportunities to heal.”
“Thalia, those were my children. It was at the point that they were punishing me for being away from them and leaving them with their mother the only way they could – putting their children through it in front of me. I knew what it was about. I'm not the kind of man to play that kind of game with. God is good … for nine solid years, He held me.
“But also, Thalia, Robert Jr. and Anne knew the game was up at the end. Anne was wise enough not to try me to my face, and so perhaps never knew it directly, but Robert Jr. tried me, and I knew that he knew that the worst thing happening to him from me might not have been me purposefully doing that military turn and walking out on him. That was bad enough. It could have been so much worse. It could have been even worse than what I was planning to hit him and Anne with in court.”*
“I know,” Mrs. Ludlow said. “I prayed and prayed and prayed, Robert, because I do know you.”
“I needed and felt all those prayers,” Capt. Ludlow said. “When the Lord Jesus says a man's enemies shall be those of his own home … I did not understand that until this last decade … but God saved us, and our grandchildren, and would have saved more – but they would not!”
The captain buried his head in his wife's shoulder and muffled one great, deep-voiced sob – but then sat up and just breathed for several minutes.
“That was the last of it,” he said. “Maj. Mueller said there might be a bit more, but it would have to surface on its own.”
“Why family therapy for us is still a thing,” she said gently. “Edwina particularly still has a ways to go, and I think you bounce off of her like she does off of you.”
“Yes, Edwina is a personality to be reckoned with,” he said with a chuckle. “She's not lying – she's Problem Child and I'm Problem Papa, and yes, we can get co-triggered – so we both, separately and collectively, have to heal!”
“Did I hear my Problem Papa calling me?” Edwina said as she came running, all grins, to get up ino his lap as he broke out laughing.
“I was saying we gotta heal!” he said.
“Well, laughing is good!” she said, and added her laugh to his in a healing harmony.
Eleanor and Andrew smiled through their tears.
“We were right,” Eleanor said to Andrew. “God really didn't make any mistakes.”
“We were about to be a whole true crime situation!” Andrew said.
“But God stepped in, and everybody is where they need to be – that's sad, but it is what it is,” Eleanor said.
Andrew handed Eleanor his handkerchief, and they went and cried for a long time, and then walked into the arms of their grandparent-raised cousin Col. H.F. Lee and cried some more after telling him what they had heard.
“That was a lot,” he said. “The truth is often dark and deep when it comes to missing generations in our families – but know this. God makes no mistakes. God made no mistakes in taking my parents, and my child, so I could be raised right and also be here for y'all. We don't have to like it – we're not even supposed to like sin's results so we remember and don't get into it for ourselves. We already know what kinds of parents and grandparents we need to be because we know what is going to happen if we don't – we already know what that pain is. We're not passing it up to those who stepped up for us, and we're not passing it down to our children.”
“Nope,” Andrew said.
“Definitely not doing any of that!” Eleanor said.
“It ends with us,” Col. Lee said, and he and his cousins shook and hugged again before the little Ludlows, relieved, were released back into the joys of childhood.
Another entertaining story to read. What a wonder how creative you are bringing out these stories daily 🥰❤️
It is the gift of God ... that's the only thing I can say!
It hurts to think about children still going through what these kids went through in foster care.
!LOL
!ALIVE
It does ... I give them a VOICE in the world, so those of us in position can do something about it if called.
(1/10)
@deeanndmathews!
You Are Alive so I just staked 0.1 ALIVE to your account on behalf of @myjob.
Keep being incredible 🌈
Thank you -- that's the plan!