I want to share this story just in case someone else might need it some day.
I was out walking my dogs one afternoon when I came across an elderly lady sitting in a wheelchair outside her house. We started talking and it didn’t take long before she confided in me that she only had a few months left to live. She clearly needed someone to talk to so I stayed for as long as she needed.
She eventually started talking about her daughter who struggled with anorexia as a teen. It got so bad she only allowed herself one piece of toast at a specific time of day and if that moment passed she simply didn’t eat at all that day.
The woman didn’t know what to do because she knew nothing she could do or say would change her daughter’s mind. She was just a stupid mom after all.
But then the woman came up with a plan. She worked at a hospital that had a free gym for the employees and her daughter worked out all the time so the women went to the people who worked at the gym, told them about her daughter’s situation and asked them if they would allow her daughter to work there for free, her only payment being that she could use the gym as much as she wanted, and please don’t tell her she had anything to do with it. She knew her daughter would love that deal and it wouldn’t cost the gym a thing. They agreed and the woman said “The only other thing I ask of you is if you could please inform her about nutrition. Don’t tell her how she should eat. Just inform her about good healthy nutrition as part of her job”
Some time went by and one day when the woman came home she noticed a half eaten apple on the kitchen table. That was the beginning of her daughter’s road to recovery.
The woman looked away and said “I told her many years later that it was my plan all along but I conspired against my daughter”
I responded “The best kind of conspiracy though”
Sometimes you just have to realize you aren’t the person, even if you’re the parent, someone needs to get better, and sometimes you have to “conspired against” them to save their life.
