8. Emotional Rescue

Innocence Returned

It isn’t running away they’re afraid of. We wouldn’t get far. It’s those other escapes, the ones you can open in yourself, given a cutting edge. ― Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale

* * * * *

Once again, my father had taken possession of me and hidden me away. My mother, frantic to find me, asked friends, family, and my doctors if they had any clues as to where I might be. At this time, Christine was in the hospital nearing death so my mother knew she couldn’t be involved. But then, my mother remembered meeting an older woman with my father, Anna Newbert, at the hospital. I called her “Tante”. My mother thought that I might be with her. During the introductions, Tante was very polite to my mother. This was particularly memorable since people associated with my father rarely were cordial to her. The two women struck up a light conversation during which Tante told my mother she was from Maine and had a house in Augusta. So, when I later went missing, my mother looked up Anna Newbert in a Maine phone book and found her address. Hoping the address might be a lead, her only lead at this point, my mother then requested permission from the court to travel to Maine in order to see if I was there. Permission was granted.

Supported by her sisters, they all drove up to Augusta, Maine. It was December 1970; travel was hazardous. When they arrived at the house, it was late in the day. They found it all locked up with no lights on, nor a car in the driveway. My mother went to the police station to register her appearance in compliance with her bail, and the police confirmed that they had a record showing that I was living with Mrs. Newbert. But, they did not know where I was at that moment. Defeated, my mother and her sisters returned to the Quinn’s house on the Cape to figure out what their next step might be.