CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 10

Before Sally met David:

When she was in her early twenties, Sally went to see a counsellor to work on the problems she had with intimacy and relationships.

Her name was Margaret. She was a large, middle-aged lady with grey hair and a weakness for silk scarves. She spent many sessions talking about Sally’s early life, and her mother’s second marriage, and then she offered Sally a prognosis.

“What I think,” Margaret said, “is that the lack of connection you feel towards others is a defence mechanism. It’s a way of protecting yourself from getting hurt.”

Sally’s father had suffered a massive cerebral haemorrhage when Sally was very young, which had left him incapacitated and unable to fend for himself. He became a shell of his former self, a slack-jawed, drooling lump whom Sally couldn’t bear to be around most of the time.

Sally’s mother became his full time caretaker, a task which left her emotionally and physically drained. She had no time for Sally when she was done wi