A time long ago

My name has long faded from the court’s memory. As has the little girl who’s life they’ve damaged forever: my daughter.

I’ve not seen my daughter for many years now. By the simplest psychological standard, she will carry the damage incurred at the hands of the Contra Costa County Family Court Services, James Paulsen, and theatre lighting major-turned-therapist, Sue Mayo, for the rest of her life.

I have moved on. Remarried. Happily ever after as are my sons (who have also not seen nor heard from their sister in years). The nieces and nephews who have come along since that dark moment in time don’t even know they have an aunt. Her name is not spoken.

My ex remains in Las Vegas where his lifelong child pornography addiction can be fueled and his narcissistic supply regularly re-charged.

There are times that something reminds me of my daughter and for a moment, I am sad. Then I take a deep breath and remember I’ve moved forward. I’m actually the lucky one. I’m an adult who can process injustice and injury, and move through it. She was just a kid who wanted to “live with her mother and visit her father.”

For the record, I did not get counseling as Sue Mayo recommended (since I was psychotic enough to object to child pornography in my home). Since I actually have a psychology degree which is more than Sue Mayo, I’ve come to believe that she was the psychotic one. It’s just one opinion. Just like Sue Mayo’s. Except that Sue Mayo some how, some way, holds a position of power that allows her to destroy the lives of children who are already traumatized by their parents’ divorce.

And James Paulsen? Five years later, I’m still waiting for a response to my letter of complaint about Sue Mayo.