I have always known my grandson was different, even before doctors said so. In my eyes, he wasn’t broken, just different. Danny, my most special boy, didn’t speak until he was five, and when he finally uttered his first words, they shook us to the core.
The room was silent as usual. My daughter was in the kitchen, trying to cut the cake. Albert, my son-in-law was in the corner of the room with his phone in his hand, working as always, and Danny, he was in his own little world. It felt like he was trapped inside, but he was always really calm and it seemed he like it.
While having my tea and looking at how Danny went with his tiny fingers through the patterns of the carpet, he suddenly stood up and did something he had never done before; he made eye contact with me. You see, Danny never looked anyone in the eyes, so this was rather shocking for me, his grandma who lived to see him thrive.
Still overwhelmed from the feeling of his sweet brown eyes meeting mine, he uttered his first ever words.
“Grandma,” he said, “there is something I want to tell you.”
It felt as if the world had stopped spinning. All heads turned to Danny. My daughter, Louise, dropped the knife on the kitchen floor but was too shocked to be able to pick it up. Albert finally left his phone.
“What is it sweetheart? What do you want to tell me?” I asked him calmly, although my heart was racing and my hands were trembling.
“Mommy has a secret,” Danny said.
Louise, whose face turned even paler than before, made a move. “Danny, honey,” she said, “go play with your toys.”
But now that Danny finally spoke, he didn’t plan on stopping.
“She told the man on the phone that she doesn’t love daddy and that something is wrong with me,” Danny said. His words felt like a sharp knife and he stood as still as ever, unaware of the chaos he caused.
“She wants to run away,” Danny said before he went back to playing with the carpet.
His words were more than any of us could handle at that moment.
Albert looked at Louise and she crashed. “Is that true?” he asked. Sobbing, Louise tried to reach his hand put he pulled it away. “It’s not like it sounds, honey,” she tried to explain.
“Did you really tell someone that something’s wrong with our son? Is that what you think of your own child?”
Louise, broken, confessed she said those words because she felt like she failed like a mother. Danny never said a word to her, he never looked her in the eyes, she was feeling guilty of not doing more for him.
But Albert didn’t want to listen or accept her excuses.
While the two argued, I asked if I could take Danny upstairs, and Albert allowed me. The boy had a smile on his face, not knowing that he threw a bomb and shattered the family apart.
In the days that followed, Albert filed for divorce.
My daughter seemed to be relieved with the outcome. She told me she never really wanted to be a mother, she only gave birth to a child because it was what Albert wanted. “I don’t know how to be a mother,” she told me. “I love Danny, I really do, and I’ve tried… but I just don’t feel it.”
Her words were heavy. No matter how much I tried, I couldn’t forgive her for speaking of her own son like that, not then, not ever.
Eventually, she left her family, and Danny stayed with his father. I remained part of their life.
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Bored Daddy
Love and Peace