The Intervention: Six Generations of Family Life

By Dr. Rachell Anderson

Life can be hard on all of us and this highly talented family is no exception. Faced  with situations often beyond their control, they resort to the love and comfort of family and used their talents to make the world a better place. They demonstrate that no matter how heavy the load, it’ll be okay in the end.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stratton Press
• Release date: May 17, 2019
• ISBN: 9781643455341

Dr. Rachell Anderson

Having grown up on the family's cotton farm in the Mississippi Delta, Dr. Anderson spent 50 years learning, teaching and healing in the field of Clinical Psychology in Illinois. When she returned to the farm after retirement to help care for her aging mother, she continued to write and help others to do so. In addition, she serves on a number of boards, volunteers clinical hours at the Church Health Center in Memphis and write Family Matters Articles for a number of publications. The Intervention is her 12th book. Visit her website at http://www.drrachellanderson.com/

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Six Generations of Family Life

Dr. Rachell N. Anderson

THE INTERVENTION

Copyright © 2019 Dr. Rachell N. Anderson

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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ISBN (Paperback): 978-1-64345-416-0

ISBN (Ebook): 978-1-64345-534-1

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

Chapter 1: Intervention

Chapter 2: Mission Accomplished

Chapter 3: Now What?

Chapter 4: Shaky Ground

Chapter 5: Interspersed

Chapter 6: Not Just about Food

Chapter 7: Legal Wrangling

Chapter 8: In the Natural World

Chapter 9: Heart Song

Chapter 10: To Commence

Chapter 11: Truth or Its Consequences

Chapter 12: Nothing Could Be Finer

Chapter 13: Music Man

Chapter 14: Dubiety

Chapter 15: That Joyful Feeling

Chapter 16: Preparations

Chapter 17: You Whack My Pee Pee

Chapter 18: Twisted Trees

Chapter 19: Cinnamon Sugar

Chapter 20: Damaged Goods

Chapter 21: Dance of the Rituals

Chapter 22: Free Range

Chapter 23: I’ve Got to Be Me

Chapter 24: Coming Full Circle

Chapter 25: And Sometimes She Lies

Chapter 26: Letting Go and Cleaning Up

Chapter 1

Intervention

The light flickered on the television screens that scan incoming customers at Bloomingdale’s Department Store in the Loop in Chicago, and John Marshall, head of security, spots the familiar long stride and slim body. The attractive older woman wore skinny jeans and a short fur jacket that he recognized as one of the store’s finest from several seasons back. Glancing at new displays and gently touching fabrics, it is clear she is on a mission. But was she the Ruth McGowan he has watched for years and had been unable to catch in the act of shoplifting? The stride fit, but he wasn’t sure about the rest. What was so different was the hair. He remembered Ruth’s as long, flowing, and brown, which gently framed her face and made her look ten years younger than her actual age.

John is accustomed to watching Ruth, but he hadn’t seen her for a while. Was it her? He wishes she would look up so he could see the multicolor of her hazel eyes. But she doesn’t, and John finally decides this customer with Ruth’s stride and body style and short white hair wasn’t her but instead was a light-skinned black woman with white hair. He turns his surveillance energies back to other customers.

With pride, Ruth sports the new hair she acquired after treatment for breast cancer. Chemotherapy and radiation brought about the change. Her hair went from long and lush Miss Carole #118 medium brown to total baldness. As her hair grew back, it was white, very curly, and a miracle. Ruth embraced the miracle and decided to keep it that way. Her doctors called her a miracle when they pronounced her cancer-free and suggested her speedy recovery was due to her daily hour at the gym and her mostly vegetable, turkey, and seafood diet.

The chemicals changed Ruth’s hair but not her insatiable appetite for making a difference and shoplifting. She didn’t understand the relief from the empty feeling in the pit of her stomach that was satiated only when an item or two from the store was safely in her possession. The intensity of her urge often overtakes her and puts her in jeopardy of going to jail although she doesn’t see it that way. She doesn’t need the items she takes and gives them away, sometimes to friends or family and sometimes to a homeless person she meets on her way home. For some reason, she just has to steal to relieve the empty feeling in the pit of her stomach. She has done it for years since that fateful night at the Olive Garden Restaurant, but she has never been caught. In fact, she gives little thought to getting caught. John calls Ruth a criminal, but Ruth sees it differently. As an intense believer in the power of the Almighty, she believes the urges and their resolution are gifts from God. She is sure she is doing God’s work and is driven to continue helping others in the way she has been called to do.

Most people who know Ruth in her North Mississippi town think well of her. She is a feisty lady, active member of the Trinity Baptist Church in her North Mississippi town, has served on a number of committees, was educated as a teacher in elementary education, was a good wife and grandmother, and is willing to help others when they are sick or in pain. The one flaw that irritates some people is her self-righteousness with no reluctance to set others straight when she thinks their thinking is flawed. And then there is another thing about Ruth (known only to family members): the battles she initiates with her daughter-in-law, Sarah.

John Marshall moved his attention away from his confusion about Ruth and did all he could to resist thinking about the free fall his life and career has taken. His size 44 black Armani suit (worn with a crisp white shirt and red tie) pinches in all the wrong places. His hair, graying at