My Story:

About 4 years ago, a psychologist named Jane Fletcher bought a cabin on East Barriere Lake in Barriere, B.C. to act as a summer retreat for her patients. The cabin was beautifully crafted and very secluded on a three-acre lot, complete with a beach volleyball court and a large fire pit area in which Jane used to hold daily meetings with her clients. Because Jane specialized in helping those who were prone to inflicting pain on themselves, most of the meetings she held included every patient so that they could all talk openly with each other as well as develop trust with people outside of themselves and/or their immediate family. Jane quickly became known as “The Cabin Psychologist” and over the subsequent years has helped more than 500 people to stop harming themselves. But everyone wants to know, what is her secret? Why does her retreat seem to help people cope with their issues better than any other retreat in B.C.?

Well, that is exactly what the current 10 people sitting around the fire pit where about to find out. Jane came barging around the corner of the cabin with a good-looking man who seemed to be in his mid 30’s. Because it was week three of their four-week retreat for those sitting around the campfire, this was the first time in over two weeks that the patients saw someone from outside the retreat. They were shocked, to say the least. Jane introduced the man as George Lefray and mentioned that he was a former patient who was there to listen to everyone’s stories of what brought them to Jane’s retreat, as well as tell his own.

Slowly but surely, each patient told their story of how they came to be at Jane’s retreat. Most shared stories of how the fast paced nature of their lives left them feeling inadequate and overwhelmed, causing them to cut themselves because their pain was one thing that they could control. Others felt guilt for committing crimes that they escaped charges for and, therefore, hurt themselves to ensure that they did receive some form of punishment. One thing that almost all the patients had in common was the fact that feelings of guilt caused by their involvement in something deemed “inappropriate” or “bad,” led to them harming themselves.

Once they had all finished their stories it was George’s turn. George admitted that he was brought up in a privileged family in London, Ontario. He was raised by two mom’s and therefore was a sperm donor baby, sharing genes with only one of his mothers. In grade 10, he and his moms moved to Vancouver, where he met his best friend, Beth, who was also a sperm donor baby with two moms. The only difference was that Beth was able to get information about her sperm donor, and at the very least knew that her father lived in Victoria and was of German decent. Though she didn’t know his name, she always bragged about being the kid of sperm donor 2H2T (or who she like to call “Too Hot To Trot”). Unlike Beth, George had no desire to learn who his biological father was and even if he wanted to, it was harder to get that information in Ontario. Though they disagreed on this point, they became very close due to their strong understanding of the struggles that they each faced growing up without a strong male influence in their lives. And after two years of friendship, George got the courage to ask Beth to be more than just friends and she said, “Yes!” George could not be happier because he knew that Beth was the love of his life. Two years later, they married and then were blessed with three beautiful children: Jack, Hannah, and Tim. After Tim was born they decided to move to London, Ontario because George’s Grandma was battling cancer and George wanted to help her win the fight—which he did. After a year of living in Ontario and enough nagging from Beth, George decided to find out who his father was, after all. He didn’t tell Beth that he was going to do it, but instead, decided to surprise her on her 30^th Birthday with the news. So the day before her big surprise party George was throwing for her, he went to the sperm clinic to pick up the results. He was hoping that his father was Swedish because Beth’s celebrity crush was Swedish actor Alexander Skarsgård, so he wanted to be able to joke about her falling in love with a fellow Swede. But the big surprise was that he wasn’t Swedish, but instead German. And the biggest surprise of all? His sperm donor was 2H2T. George stayed parked in his car for long time just staring at the sheet, hoping that the “2H2T” would morph into a “242T”. All he could think over and over was that his wife was his sister. His wife was his sister. His wife was his sister. THE LOVE OF HIS LIFE WAS HIS SISTER. After the shock began to subside form a 100/10 to a 90/10, George was faced with the question of what to do next. Does he tell his wife…/sister? Can he just pretend it didn’t happen and burn the results? What about his kids? George decided that because this news devastated him beyond belief and changed everything, he did not have the heart to tell Beth. The pain and, quite frankly, the disgust he felt made up his mind that he never wanted Beth or his children to feel as lost and upset as he was. Knowing he could not look at Beth the same way ever again, he knew he had to end it. So he did the one thing that he knew would make her leave him and allow for her to move on and possibly find someone else. He cheated on her with her co-worker and made sure she caught him in the act. Sure enough, she left him and George moved to Barierre, B.C. and now sees his kids for a couple weeks every summer.

George finished his story and everyone around the campfire was silent. George wiped the tears of his face and looked everyone in the eye one by one for the first time since he began his story. He then proceeded to tell everyone,

“That is my story. I have felt more pain than every single one of you around this campfire and have broken the hearts of every single member of my family.   Yet, I have still never managed to harm myself. So every time that you think you’re in too much pain and you want to harm yourself, think of my story. You will never feel as much pain as I have. Killing someone does not equal the pain I have felt. If I can keep living with the guilt I feel, then everyone around this fire can too.”

Everyone around the campfire wished they hadn’t heard George’s story, yet knew that they needed to hear it in order to bring tremendous perspective to their lives.   Jane ended the meeting by thanking George for having the strength to tell his story again and told everyone that not a day will go by that they will wish that they had not heard George’s story, yet not a day will go by that they will not be thankful for hearing it.

“And that my friends,” said Jane thoughtfully, “is why my retreat works.”

My Comments:

My goal for my story was to not only make sure that the characters in my story wished that they hadn’t heard the story, but also that all of you reading my story would also wish that you hadn’t heard it. Did it work?

I was inspired to create this story because the story that George tells is inspired by an allegedly true story that a man anonymously posted on an advice column. (Here is a link to the story).  My friend told me about it a year or so ago and I remember thinking when she told me, “I wish I could forget that you told me that.” Not surprisingly, I didn’t forgot it and it was the first thing I thought of when I thought of things that I could add to my story that would make my audience wish they hadn’t read it.

I never considered myself much of a storyteller, but when I told my family my story I realized that story telling is something that I do constantly. I love to laugh and I find that the best tool to make myself, and others, laugh is telling real life stories; personally, I think the absolute truth is hilarious (real life being thrown in your face).

I also realized how fun it is to write stories. I’ve always wanted to write a book and I feel like doing this assignment has made me even more determined to write one. After all, what’s the worst that can happen? Someone will read my story and wish that they hadn’t.

Works Cited

“Alexander Skarsgård.” IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 31 May 2014.

Daniels Hussar, April. “Man Finds Out He’s Married to His Sister on Their Anniversary.” The Stir. 24 Feb. 2013. Web. 31 May 2014

King, Thomas. “The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative” Toronto: House of Anansi P., 2003. Print.