We Are The Reason
Kyle 12 and Cousin Josh Hawkins
We Are The Reason ---David Meece
When Kyle was 12 he was trying real hard to be a cool kid. He had made his Mum buy him better clothes but he was still a rebel.
He hated his absent Dad at that time and had it out with him, saying how much he missed him being around.
Kyle taking on the role of Dad, for his 4 younger brothers, and he was a fierce protector but still wanted his own life. So we let him hang at the park and be a boy.
He had great mates and a couple of horrors, but we wanted to find out that for him self.
Yvette had a breakdown at one stage and B and his new wife took care of them for a while and then wouldn't give them back.
I wanted them to have the boys temporarily until I returned from Queensland and they ended up having them for five months which was just stupid.
Once I had stabilised Yvette, who is skinny and a single Mum and goes down hill ultra fast if she's not careful.
She used to be anorexic and a dramatice weight loss on her starts a multi personality syndrome which is fairly mild but can be debilitating if she is not stable and happy.
I mean she can also be a loud mouth, yelling at the kids over the back fence last night. Yvette is Yvette and outspoken and doesn't believe in keeping quiet if she has something to say.
Last nights example because the boys over the back were being stupid,
"I'll tell your Mum I saw you smoking dope, ya little fag"
I remember B's Mum saying Merilyn was like that, say anything often not with tact but often she was right and Yvette is the same.
Being diagnosed with being a pessimist as a girl of 10, after she had kicked a teacher in the shin and walking home.
So Me, the Maternal Grandmother asked for them to be put in my guardianship, and I wrestled back custody. B and K dropping the boys outside DHS office at 5pm that night, abandoning them.
We were more them glad to have them back and Kyle asked to be last out, of B's as he wanted his brothers back to Mum, first.
He could stand another couple of days, he quite liked B but they all hated his new wife, K. She didn't like anyone, well certainly none of us.
B and I used to speak and get on Ok, till she came along as a jealous, vindictive person/ I said to her once,
"I can't help the fact I was once married to him for 20 years. OK "
And I said I thought she was just jealous, which she was, silly woman. I didn't want him and he didn't want me but we shared a history and still had kids together. What are you to do ?
It would have nice to have been polite to each other for the sake of the children, but it remained a war, and my ex loves those sort of things, holding grudges for ever, silly Man.
Any way back to Kyle, he was starting to be rebellious, and we had to keep a strict eye on him.
Sending him to St. Gerards as he seemed to need a strong belief system and we knew Catholicism would help him. It did.
By the time he was in Grade 6, he had a mentor, Eddie Smith, his grade 6 Teacher.
An Older Northern Irishman who was married with his own teen boys and took Kyle under his wing and he told me he'd be alright as long as he hung with the right friends.
Kyle had Terry and Steven over the road and those two brothers were everything to him. Both rich spoiled Greek kids.
Terry very overweight and Steven a nice kid. We let him hang around with them and Little Ilias, next door, a tiny cheeky little Monkey.
The end of that year came, hot and busy and it came time for the end of year concert. Kyle, Joe Cool, was just hanging with the boys at the park, learning how to breakdance and flip backwards off the picnic table.
He was in a concert he said and made little of it. We were surprised he was even participating as an end of year concert seemed a bit "nerdy" for him.
I
Yvette and the boys went the first night, I was working full time and the last thing I wanted to do on a Friday night was going to a nativity play. Kyle didn't care if I missed it he had said.
So I went of course, telling him I would come for the Grade 5 and sixes as I was all done in that week and was not ready for 3 hours of little angels and Wise Men.
Cynically I stood at the back and waited for the Grade 6's to come on.
The stage went into darkness and we heard shuffling, kids were entering the darkened stage. We waited, puzzled.
Then this amazing music came on and suddenly the stage was full of fluttering white hands.
They started building pictures on the stage, flowers, waves, fireworks exploding, patterns and waves, all moving intricately as the spectacular built to a climax.
It was beautiful and all my tiredness went and I cried, (of course), so proud of him putting all that hard work which had to have taken months of rehearsal. And we hadn't known, he never mentioned it.
Eddie Smith came up to me and turned round to the happy Kyle,
"Aww, you've made your Mommy cry, " I said
"Nanny "
The song was David Meece, You are My Reason and he remains one of my best reasons among the other kids and grandkids for me to "be".
Lauren always told us to take care of him for her and no job could be more pleasurable, he always tried so very hard.
Love Janette
