www.rmtracking.com

by Ellen Trowbridge

What would you do if a loved one could not be found? GPS tracking devices are becoming a popular tool to keep track of children and elderly. A few years ago I was a hospice volunteer in my local community, and one of my assigned patients, Rhonda, was a lovely young mother of two, about thirty five years old, who had developed a rare form of cancer and could not get well. She often got disoriented and would wonder off without anyone knowing where she was. As we became acquainted during my time with her I found out to my surprise that her best buddy was my next door neighbor, Terry. Rhonda and Terry had been friends since college days, had married about the same time, and had settled in the same community. Terry also had two daughters who were close to Rhonda’s children in age. Before she died, Rhonda begged Terry to take care of her two little girls – a promise that Terry made willingly. As Rhonda became weaker, Terry found herself spending more and more time with her friend, sometimes to the detriment of her own husband and children. The devotion of the two young women became deepened by the sadness of knowing they would be separated by death very soon. As time went by, Terry found that she was also needed to comfort Tony, Rhonda’s grieving husband and the two little girls. More and more often she would stay over at Rhonda’s, leaving her own handsome husband, George to care for their children.

After Rhonda died, Terry became more involved in her role as comforter to the bereaved Tony and the girls. Compassion deepened into love, and Terry started spending nights at Tony’s house. The tensions deepened at Terry and George’s home, accusations of abandonment grew, and the George and Terry’s children became more and more sullen and discipline started to become a problem. Rhonda’s mother came out from New England to stay with Tony and the children, and while she was with them the situation was easier all around, but she wasn’t blind to the attraction that had blossomed between her son-in-law and Terry and she was unable to do anything about it, much to her own distress.

Sadly, this situation continued for over a year. Terry was aware of the tragedy she was causing in her own family and she was full of guilt, but she seemed unable to help herself, and the situation just dragged on and on tearing both families apart.

George and Terry’s children moved away several years later. Eventually George married someone else. I don’t know if the new wife was a good mother to his children.