After that episode, Theo actually told me the whole story of his family.
His father was a doctor as well.
When he was young, he was a very well-loved husband, father and professional.
Everyone who ever knew him, agreed: he was a wonderful person.
I don't find it hard to believe.
I guess he was a little bit like Theo: funny, caring, and intelligent.
His mother fell head over heels for him. I remember once -years later- she showed me their wedding photos, and cried. You could see it in her face, how in love she was, when she got married.
But then, when Theo was around 10 years old, also their picture-perfect family cracked.
Tragedy struck.
His father fell severely ill.
I will omit the details of his illness because they are not essential for my story, and even if their real names are not written, I want to kind of protect his privacy a little more.
So, he fell ill.
He went on and off with treatments for years.
Some failed. Then, he got cancer.
It had been a hard, very hard time. For him, and his whole family.
Unfortunately, those years took a toll not only on his physical health. But on his mental health as well.
He became paranoid.
Detached from reality, and from his own family.
He had started having delusions.
He thought that everyone was his enemy.
Every outside person was trying to hurt him, and his family.
Friends, neighbours.
He didn't want his family members to ever get out.
He started controlling their life down to the most minuscule details: what should they wear, what should they eat, when could they go out (basically, never).
And if they didn't do what he demanded, he would be mad. Yelling, threatening to kill himself... or them.
That's why Theo was so nervous about going back home at weekends.
The atmosphere was not the most pleasant.
And if he got home a minute late, it was a tragedy.
If he spent a weekend with me and my family, more tragedy.
His father would yell and toss him things; try to physically harm him.
The same, he would do to his mother, that would stand there, crying helplessly.
So shocked and desperate that she couldn't defend herself.
Theo was very self-conscious about the whole situation, and he didn't like to talk to people about it.
He also had a younger brother and a sister: Daniel and Emma.
He loved them dearly, and took on a protective role with them.
As soon as I realized the situation, I felt like when I had met my sister for the first time.
Like, when I had held my little brother in my arms for the first time.
Those times I knew, straight away.
They were my family.
I would love them till the day I'd die.
I would protect them.
And the same way, I felt for Daniel and Emma.
They were my family, immediately.
They all were: even his father, even though I won't deny it; he scared me a lot.
We tried hard, and got very far, in our relationship with him. Through the following years.
But I never liked being with him: it had been a torture, from the first, to the very last time I saw him.
He scared me, even though I understood the painful process that took him to where he was.
I didn't blame him.
But that didn't make the torture of seeing him any less: I will not lie.
But it was a torture I endured for Theo, and his siblings.
And if I went back, I would endure it again, if I had to.
Because I loved him.
And I always will.
YOU ARE READING
Let's hope for the best
Non-Fiction... but prepare for the worst. When I was a kid, I thought that life was going to be like a Disney movie. Then, alas, life happened. And I found out, I was not ready for it.
