November 17, 2011
Claire met me just north of the San Fernando Valley for the drive over to Huntingdon Hospital, to visit Gabriela. Claire had been divorced from my ex-husband for almost a year and wasn’t quite over it yet.
As we drove we talked about how Gabriela was doing, and her improvement over the last couple of days. Claire listened with interest and asked a few questions. She is knowledgeable on the topic of mental health because she also suffers from bipolar I.
We also discussed our ex, Cody. Claire needed someone to commiserate with. I told her I was nine and a half years smarter than she was, that being the number of years I’d been married to Cody before she met and married him. We both laughed.
During the drive, Claire discovered a number of untruths that Cody had told her about his relationship with me. I admitted that I had known about most of the fabrications, but had never brought them up because I understood that Cody needed to feel that the divorce was his idea, and that it helped him get past it. Frankly, I didn’t care.
What I learned from Claire was that she hadn’t been the reason Cody didn’t visit his daughter after our divorce, as I had thought. Claire had actually encouraged it! The truth was that it was Cody’s decision not to spend time building a relationship with Gabriela, which simply confirmed my opinion that Cody is a sociopath.
At the hospital, Claire, Gabriela, and I sat together at a small table in the day room. Claire and Gabriela were catching up on time they had missed. I watched the two of them with contentment. They got along so well it was clear that Gabriela really did love Claire, and that Claire felt the same.
Just a few days earlier it would have been impossible for Gabriela to have a conversation, but since the anti-psychotic injection and beginning the Seroquel, the return of Gabriela to functional was at light speed.
It was such a warm comfortable feeling with this trio of strong women. What an unlikely mix, mother, daughter, and stepmother all enjoying a visit together and feeling completely at ease.
Claire and I stayed until the very last minute of visiting hours. Then she and I both took turns giving Gabriela a hug and kiss goodbye. Gabriela told us both that she loved us and asked Claire to come again.
On our way home Claire and I chatted like school girls. We talked about the visit and how Gabriela looked and how she seemed. Claire commented on the other patients on the ward, and what had happened to Gabriela, and what the doctors were doing, and what they might be thinking in regards to Gabriela and her treatment. We covered it all.
Claire laughed when she found out that she and Gabriela were taking some of the same medications. One they had in common was Seroquel. She didn’t know what the medication was used for, so I explained that it is an anti-psychotic. Claire responded dryly, “Great!” Claire has a wonderfully dry sense of humor that makes me laugh, and at that time any and all laughter was good medicine for me.
We stopped for dinner on the way home, and on top of looking like sisters and having similar voices we ordered exactly the same meal all the way down to the same glass of wine. We both laughed.
It felt great to have someone to share with who truly loved Gabriela.