Putting someone in a nursing home can be a difficult enough decision. Anyone who has ever had to do it will tell you that it is one of the hardest things a person has to do for someone they love. You often wonder if your grandmother, grandfather, or other relative will be safe and well cared for. Now, with news that someone entering a North Carolina nursing home today and killing six people, the issue of safety has taken on an entirely new meaning.

This is a developing story, but one that will have many people watching with interest. It brings up the question of security in nursing homes, which is often nonexistent. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families and residents of the Pinelake Health and Rehabilitation Center as police try to make sense of what happened there today.

Image: sxc.hu.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, “Divorce Sucks.” I was in high school when my parents divorced and it rocked my whole world, in a very emotionally damaging way. I remember, all too vividly, the heart wrenching pain that caused me to cry myself to sleep at night. The memories are so vivid, in fact, that I just want to cry when I hear a child talking about his/her parents splitting up. My son, Trenton’s, best school mate is coming over to play today. As I spoke to his dad last night, he informed me that his wife left them and it will just be the two of them from now on. I had to try not to break down as I offered my condolences.

My son’s friend is an only child. He calls Trenton his brother and follows him around like a lost puppy. They are inseparable during the school year and I wondered what he would do, come summer time, when they would not see each other every day. Now I’m just tormented, thinking about how badly his little heart must be breaking, over his family’s dissolution. He doesn’t even have a sibling to help him through this tough time. I had my sisters and we were a great source of comfort to each other. How do only children get through an experience like this?

I am also feeling quite angry towards this boy’s mother. I can’t help it. I do not know the whole situation, of course. All I know is that this mother has chosen to abandon her son. Marriage takes two people, as does the destruction of it. Parenting, however, should not be compromised just because a marriage doesn’t work out. Why doesn’t this mother want custody of her son? How can she feel okay with her abandonment?  My maternal grandmother left her eight kids behind, when she left my grandpa. As much as I love her, I can never respect her decision to do such an abhorrently selfish thing. Maybe I feel so strongly about it because I was on the receiving end of abandonment and I know how badly it destroys a child’s sense of security and trust. What are your feelings about this subject?