A Plea for Compassion
I realize that Jackie Silver is an aggravating and maddening handful. I also recognize that her behavior is not normal. As I told you before, if she were deaf, blind, or a cripple, everyone would recognize and accept her shortcomings. She appears to be a good-looking, normal woman, but she is not. She is broken. She is like a frightened little creature who is desperate. She does not have the mechanism to cope normally. She is frightened—for a better description, just that! A little terrified creature who does not know which way to turn, where to seek help. She is desperate. If she has behaved thus since she was young, doesn’t it tell you that she has needed help since then?
After her stroke, her mother was moved out of her house. Her sisters threw Jackie’s belongings out onto the street! In the apartment she rented, they switched them? This is their sister! She is incapable of holding on to a job. I imagine that she suffers from some kind of disability. She is a pathetic, lost soul struggling to maintain a semblance of normalcy. Did you know that for a long while she lived in her car? The back seats of her car are piled with all her worldly possessions. She is not an object of derision but a person to be pitied. Sometimes family fights and disagrees, but family is family, and they help one another. What is happening here is horrifying. It’s cruel! I cannot understand it!
Why do we recognize Albert’s behavior as not normal and are not unaccepting of it? He calls people at unseemly hours of night and makes hearts pound painfully, and we think, “Poor guy, he is not normal!” Why do we smile affectionately at sweet Ronnie yet shun this poor creature? Why? Why? Is she not as much an object to feel extremely compassionate for as they are? The difference is that they have families that care and look after them. She has a disabled mother, lost her father, and heartless and cruel sisters.
I know someone whose parents passed away. She is married but made the decision not to have any children because she has a sister with a disability for whom she feels responsible. She could have just as easily turned her back on her sister and allowed the system to care for her. She did not, for she is a true human being. I do not know Jackie’s sisters, but I do not have much respect for them, for family takes care of its own. I hope I am wrong, very wrong, but I fear that Jackie will be found dead somewhere someday because no one cared.
On Rosh Hashanah, Jackie hesitatingly asked me if she could celebrate with us. I said yes. I did not expect her to bring anything. She did. To me, that proves the decency of this broken creature. She is not a monster. It was Friday night. She asked me if she could light a Sabbath candle. She brought her own candlestick. She then called her mother. They said their prayers, and she lit the candle. That touched me.
You are a kindhearted and good person, Saul. You obviously are close to Josephine’s family. Maybe you can speak to them. This is an unfortunate state of affairs.
Shabbat Shalom.