The Client's Suffering

• Author: Kenneth P. Nolan
• Pages: 121-131

The Client’s Suffering

121

Initially, it’s anger.

Anger at the airline for running out of fuel, crashing onto a hill,

tearing the four-month-old child from his mother’s arms to his death.

The mother, whose injured left arm was rendered useless, sadly

survived, tormented by incessant demons and inexplicable guilt,

unable to share them with anyone, including her husband.

Or anger at the drunk driver with the 24 previous license sus-

pensions who runs a red light at 70 mph without headlights, drag-

ging and mutilating a mother and her two teenage girls to horrific

deaths. The perfect family is destroyed. The father, injured as well,

talks of wishing to die except for the needs of his teenage son. In a

home filled with family and graduation photos, he reminds you that

his daughters were active in Students Against Drunk Driving. The

house and its cruel reminders of the once bright future will have to

be sold. Between tears, he curses the driver to a slow death.

Sometimes it’s not only anger: It’s depression, apathy, or a com-

bination of emotions. It’s always, however, tragedy, permanent heart-

searing tragedy. Death. Paralysis. Brain damage. Amputation. From

plane crashes, or car accidents, or medical malpractice, or defec-

tive products. The kind you read about, the kind you see paraded

on TV, the kind you pray you never experience. The crown of thorns

that some must endure in this life.