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A family falling apart complete (by Phil)

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The CBB -> St Mildred's House

#1: A family falling apart complete (by Phil) Author: Guest,

Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 12:13 am
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He had not washed in three days, last night he had slept rough. He woke up on the park bench. How had he become like this? He threw up. Was there anywhere he could go? Anywhere at all? His parents had long since died. Thank goodness they could not see him in this condition!

David Russell could not bear to return to his house but he had to wash at least.

He unlocked the door and cautiously looked around the house. She had gone; good.

The house was bare except for his possessions which lay broken out of spite and in a heap. At the sight of this personal attack David wept like a child. There was no need for this. He picked up the scout leader uniform, torn to shreds by scissors; his hat was crumpled and had abuse written on it.

David had enjoyed being a scout leader in the local community. Whilst it had many detractors, particularly in this new twenty first century, it taught children values, community spirit, how to be practical but his ex wife had always been very cynical. David remembered the time she didn't seem to care when he had been assaulted by a woman who believed all scouts did was abuse children. David's wife had simply said, "Well why don't you give it up then?" David had not, kids of today wanted something to do, they needed something and staying out until three in the morning binge drinking, smoking and being violent was not what he had in mind.

His other hobby had been making making model boats: cruise ships, warships all built from scratch. These weren't kits, they had been made with intricate detail from scale plans. During the divorce proceedings, the judge had ordered David to hand over his valuable models to the ex-Mrs Russell as part of the divorce settlement. The ex-Mrs Russell had no use for the boats, she despised them. She had lied to the judge saying that she was going to sell the boats at auction to put money in a trust fund for her unborn child (fathered by another man). This all sounded very noble until the ex-Mrs Russell smashed some of them up before David's eyes. She did sell a couple on Ebay for a ridiculously low price.

David boiled with anger and frustration. He had lavished love and affection on that woman, he had given her space when she needed it, he had taken her back once when she had been having an affair with a postman named Lee. Lee had been cheating on his own wife and David's ex-wife only returned to David because she had nowhere to go, especially when Lee had been run over by a train upon which he was spraying graffiti at one in the morning.

The second affair was with a coke snorting city banker who was nearly half her age. David had thrown his wife out and initiated divorce proceedings. Then it had all gone wrong. Charges of neglect, mental cruelty and bullying were brought up and David was portrayed int he worst possible light. The choice weapon his ex-wife used was the children.

Ah yes, the children; drugs alcohol and thoroughly bad company had taken David's children away.

All the children had come from a good middle class background living in an affluent area of Surrey. They were privately educated and well mannered and taught the value of money, manners and how to stand up for themselves. They also knew right from wrong.

It had been the contention of the ex-Mrs Russell that her former husband's adherence to strict rules and boundaries caused the children to rebel and seek escape in drugs, alcohol and crime.

Perhaps she had a point: David was very strict. Darren Russell never felt "good enough" for his Dad. As a result he suffered from low self estem and teamed up with a boy named Josh in his class.

Josh had never been set any boundaries by his mother and took everything as a joke. He had a nasty streak in him. He could argue like a lawyer and would pick on shy people like a wolf on sheep. The "freedom" Josh had enticed Darren and it was not long before smoking, soft drugs, alcohol and petty theft were part of Darren's life. Then Darren did something horrific: as a "joke" he stole a car and ran down a mother and her two children. His claims that it was an accident or it was Josh's idea or it was the car owner's fault for having a car that was so easy to break into or it was the woman's fault, she should have got out of the way, were treated with contempt by the judge. Darren received three life sentences. Once the shock was over, David tried to tell his son he had to take the consequences, but that David would still support him on the outside. Then Darren rejected his father, blaming him, blaming David's rules and values and crying for his mother whom he felt would be able to get him out of prison.

Darren had always been close to his older and younger sisters. Laura and Georgina empathised that Dad was too strict. Laura, the eldest decided to educate her little sister on the iniquities of Dad and that Mum was easier to get money from and sympathy. Laura had simply dropped out of university one day, telling her lecturers to"F*** off!" and raised a large family of children each by a different father. To David's values this was horrific, but again he offered to support his daughter. Laura rejected her father as a "control freak" and disappeared to Northern Cyprus with her current boyfriend. David had tried to contact her many times, but to no avail.

Then Georgina met a boy who was called "Shay". David never knew the boy's real name and he suspected Georgina did not know either. From being a lovely helpful, charming Year 8 girl she was now a monster, constantly pulled up at school for uniform infringements, lateness, chewing gum, swearing at teachers, fighting in class, bullying younger girls, theft, smoking and bringing alcohol onto the premises.

David couldn't understand how Georgina had changed so quickly, then he met Shay. Shay was seven years older than Georgina and seemed to know everybody in the seedy underworld of the local market town. Georgina was permanently excluded from school and went with Shay to Leeds as soon as she turned sixteen. David was astonished to receive bills Georgina had run up in Leeds for things like plasma screen TVs, so he did all he could to contact her. She refused. Sadly, David had to cut off funds and change bank accounts. He even had to move house; especially after the court costs of Darren's case.

His wife blamed him. His work suffered and the "Human Resources" team were called in to perform a "capability test" on him at the "request" of his "line manager". David was furious. He was an excellent clinician, trained by his father the late great Sir James Russell, he did not need "Management" who knew sweet nothing about health to "support" him. He did not need the patronising "occupational health" service to assess his "health" and "fitness for work". Why were patients these days always questioning his judgements? It seemed this was a symptom of the last fifteen years! You recommend a treatment on the best available evidence and it is questioned as if you have just lied to them! Then you have to write your evidence up in triplicate to satisfy patients, management and colleagues alike that you are adopting "best practice" and not an incompetent buffoon!

David was brought up in a time when doctors were trusted implicitly and also a time when medicine was a more male dominated profession than it is now, so he lost his temper. How dare this slip of a girl who was his "line manager" and another slip of a girl in "human resources" question his capability? Who did they think they were? They were young enough to be his daughters and David did not approve of their skirt length in a hospital. He screamed some sexist diatribe at them and accused occupational health and human resources of a plot to sack him.

David was then suspended on half pay pending a sex discrimination inquiry, something his wife had gleefully used in court.

Friends and colleagues were nowhere to be seen. They did not want to be associated with a sexist dinosaur, especially one who had forced his kids to turn out as such little horrors.

David reflected upon this desertion with bitterness. All those years of medical training in which he had excelled, all that hard work at school and doing what his father and mother told him without question; and this was his reward. He had lived by honesty all his life, but now he could see that the world was run by liars and thieves. He would give anything for a chat with his late parents now.

After sobbing around the house and kicking and punching at anything to relieve his tension, David called the only person left in the world whom he knew would be able to take him in: Sybil. He knew Josette, Ailie, Kevin and Kester had their respective families. Ailie now lived in Canada, Kevin and Kester were frequently stationed in different parts of the world, but Sybil had divorced her husband after his affair with a Thai girl and they had had no children. Sybil was alone and lonely and like David, of a retirement age. Mum and Dad had died in Australia having settled there and David could at least talk to their graves even if they couldn't answer back.

David no longer cared about his job. He still had enough savings to take to Australia and fully intended to take up Australian citizenship as Sybil had done. The joy of hearing Sybil's voice on the phone and her invitation to her brother to come and live with her was a gift from heaven.

David simply left the country. He got on a plane to Australia and never returned to England. His solicitor handled the sale of his house and other effects for him. After much paperwork the incensed NHS tribunal dismissed David in his absence, but he had managed to transfer his pension, much to their fury. He was replaced by three part time consultants who never spoke to each other and one of whom was genuinely incompetent. Former patients shook their heads in upset at the loss of their Dr Russell, but human resources, occupational health and the line manager were drunk with their absolute power and their victory over "Deadwood Russell".

In the warm breeze of Melbourne, a plump Sybil waited in her car to collect her brother.

"Look at you Davie! You're as skinny as a rake! Come home now, to your home! It's just the two of us now."

#2: Author: Phil, Location: London UK

Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 12:24 am
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Dear mods,

Please can you attribute this story to me?

I logged in as myself, started writing this then by the time I had finished I was logged out and this appeared as written by "Guest"

#3: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 8:31 am
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No problem, Phil - but poor David Sad

#4: Author: abbeybufo, Location: in a world of her own

Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 2:21 pm
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Poor David!
Very moving story - and all too possible Sad

Thanks, Phil

#5: Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar

Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 5:44 pm
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Poor David. I'm glad he went to join Sybil and hope he'll be happy there.

#6: Author: Rosalin, Location: Swansea

Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 8:43 pm
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Poor David Crying or Very sad

Thanks Phil.

#7: Author: Fiona Mc, Location: Bendigo, Australia

Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 5:57 pm
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Poor David and yet life sometimes ends up like that at times. His wife is a nasty piece of work. Thanks Phil. Am glad he had Sybil

#8: Author: crystaltips,

Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 7:30 pm
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Heavens, what a sad story. Poor David. So glad that Sybil was there for him; I hope that the rest of his life is better.

Thanks Phil

#9: Author: jilianb, Location: Essex

Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 5:53 pm
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Poor David, what a sad story. I hope that now he is with Sybil things get better

#10: Author: JustJen, Location: Cheering on the New York Yankees

Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 7:28 pm
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Oh poor David, hopefully things will be better in Australia.
Thanks for posting Phil

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