A few months passed. The twins were now three months old. Reckless Mandy only seemed to grow more and more distant with each passing day. Malachai did what he could to take the burden off of her shoulders, but there was only so much he himself could do. His brothers and sisters, as well as his parents, all helped him and Mandy out as well.
Finally, watching the deterioration of her daughter in law had gotten to Brie so she did something about it. “Mandy, you’re coming with me. I can’t watch this shit anymore.” She looked at her husband. “Help Malachai with our grandkids, please, baby?”
“Of course”, David said.
Brie grabbed her daughter in law by the hand and pulled her toward the door. Mandy fought her every step of the way. She even went so far as to take a swing at Brie. Brie pinned her against the wall with a forearm across her chest. “It’s about time I see some fight from you, Amanda. I understand you’re sick, but you’ve made no attempt to get help. There’s only so much that the rest of us can do to take the burden off of you so that you can take some time to get better, but you’re not trying. Now, you and I can do this the easy way, or the hard way. Easy way is that you and I walk out to the car like civilized human beings and I take you to the psychiatrist to get you some antidepressants. Hard way is you swing at me ONE MORE TIME and I put your lights out and drive your unconscious ass to the psychiatrist. Either way, you’re going and getting on the proper medication. Malachai’s leaving on a nationwide publicity tour in two weeks and you need to be on your toes to take care of these babies. David’s about to go into the studio and that means back to Chicago. That leaves me to deal with eight children on my own. I’m going to need your help and you’re going to need mine. How about we work together and get your better?”
Mandy looked at her mother in law in shock at first as she spoke; amazed at the fact that her mother in law was speaking to her the way she was. But, by the middle of the speech, the sweet older woman’s words hit home. She’d made no attempts to get the help she knew she needed. She looked at her mother in law and broke down. “I don’t want to feel like this anymore, Mom. I hate this. I just want to die sometimes”, she sobbed into the woman’s cotton covered shoulder.
Brie rubbed her back as she cried. “Then let me take you to get the help you need. I don’t know what you’re going through, but I do know depression. I know what it’s like to feel like a failure as a woman. I know those feelings and what helped me get through it was support from my family and friends and being on the proper medication. I’m not a believer in pills, but there comes a time when we as women need to admit that we can’t do it without the chemical stabilizers.” She had turned from the hard ass to a mother bear in no time.
“I need help, Mom.” She continued to sob into her mother in law’s shoulder.
“I know, sweetie. Let’s go get you some help, ok?”
Finally, after a few minutes, she nodded. “Ok.”
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Malachai watched as his mother pinned his fiancée against a wall in horror. He was sure that Amanda was going to do something stupid and get the holy hell knocked out of her. He sat with his three month old daughter in his arms and watched the scene in front of him. He was frozen in his place.
David watched what his son watched, but with different eyes. He saw that his wife was sick of watching the young woman they’d taken in and made a part of the continue to get sicker and sicker. And the fact that the young woman that was their son’s strength wasn’t leaning on any of them and asking for help, but was instead sitting and suffering in silence, broke both of their hearts. They’d had a conversation about doing this the night before. David knew that when his wife had gotten to where she couldn’t take anymore that something would be done. They both understood that their son was at a loss, so his mother took the reins. When he saw Mandy break down and start sobbing, he knew that his wife’s words had struck a chord with the young woman. As Brie led her out the door, his wife looked over her shoulder and blew him a kiss. He gave her a wink and returned the favor.
Malachai looked at his Dad. “What the hell just happened here?” he asked.
“Your mother did what she does best, motivate change in some fashion. It’s a shame that this time it had to be by force, though.”
“What made Mom do what she did?”
“There’s only so much your mother and I can take and there’s even less that we can do to take care of your children with only your help, Malachai. She needs to finally come to a place where she can be more hands on with her children. With the two of us getting ready to leave, there’s only so much your mother can do. Granted, she’ll have Jake and Maddie here to help out, but she’s going to need more than just Jake and Maddie while you, Jordan, and I are away from home.”
“Please tell me that’s not the ONLY reason Mom did that.”
“It’s not, son. She’s also tired of watching Mandy sink deeper and deeper into a hole she’s been in before. Hell, we’ve both been in before. Depression is an infection, but it’s not one that can be treated with antibiotics or something like that. It needs therapy and the proper medication.”
Malachai nodded. “Mom wants Mandy to get better so that she can take care of the babies and herself.”
“Exactly.”
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Mandy had no idea that her mother in law had set up an appointment for her that morning after breakfast. She had no idea that what the woman in the driver’s seat of the classic car they rode in had meant for this to be her intervention. But, she was slowly coming to that realization; and she was calming down enough to accept and be ok with it. She knew that her in laws loved her like she was their own child and that watching her suffer the way she was suffering hurt them as much as she knew it did her fiancé. She knew that Malachai was hurting as he laid in bed next to her at night. His heart ached because she was so sick and there was nothing he could do about it. But, she should have known that her mother in law would not only know what to do, but eventually- if she wasn’t approached- she would do it. Her mother in law would make sure she got the help she needed.
Her mother in law looked over at her when she parked the car at the doctor’s office. “Come on, Mandy. Let’s go see the doctor”, and the woman climbed out of the car.
There was nothing to be said. Mandy just climbed out of the car and shut the door behind her, hearing her mother in law hit a button the key chain to lock the doors and arm the alarm as they walked.
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