PE 2 -Drawing a Diagram

PE #2:
Drawing a Diagram



1. Synopsis of Story:

A social worker in a retirement village has a new patient, her own estranged mother, newly released from the hospital after a stroke. The combination of proximity and the stroke's relaxation of her mother's tongue have Sarah in fear that certain family secrets could get out, not just to her fellow employees and patients but also to her 8 yo son who has Asperger's traits and is very slow to trust.

2. Sketch of Central Character:

Sarah appears to her co-workers to be very straight-laced, concerned about honesty and about being upfront with patient and their families. She appears easy going but it took her a while to get that way and she feels she maintains only a tenuous grasp on control of her life. She loses her bills in her messy car, she is easily distracted, she is a hard worker but takes too much time (in her boss's opinion) talking with patients and residents and needs to manage her time better. She is tall, has dark, straight, shoulder length hair, and was always a little heavy on top, though not obese at all. She is 33 years old, has light brown eyes and tans easily though she doesn't lay out. She is single and is raising her 8 yo son whose father left them to pursue his dreams in the Space industry. He valued intelligence and thought his son would be delayed and asked for a divorce when Aidan was two. He has rarely contacted Sarah since, although he lives in an adjoining city and hasn't bothered to see Aiden since he was 3 years old. She would like to date again but is conflicted about bringing someone new into Aidan's life and then risk them leaving him as his father did. She is not close to her mother at all. Her mother gave her an ultimatum fifteen years ago and she cannot forgive her for this. This secret has haunted her since.

3. CC's Wants Needs and Desires:

Sarah wants to raise her son in the most stable and trusting way possible. She wants to do what she didn't do fifteen years ago, in some attempt to make right a bad decision. She also wants a father for Aidan, but the process is daunting to her. She cannot marry someone without getting to know them first but getting to know them brings risk of abandonment-not so much for her but for her son. She also wants to succeed at her job but more than that, she truly wants to be there for the residents, to really make a difference. She would turn down a promotion if it took her away from her residents and their families. She wants to improve her own inner faults and is always reading up on topics like Buddhism, other cultures, and is an avid restorer of junk, creating interesting pieces others in her community have asked to purchase but she prefers to give these items as gifts.

Sarah finally gets her wish, a budding friendship with a lawyer who decides on a career change and starts doing life stories for the elderly, complete with video, genealogical research, and booklets with the transcripts of interviews. He even gets Aidan on board. Now a highly gifted 8 year old, though a little awkward, he loves helping with the audiovisual equipment, planning questions, and the elderly will talk to him about lessons they learned as a child which go very well in the booklets. In exchange, Aidan increases his social skills and self-esteem. He also adores this new man in their lives. He looks up to him and this man, who already has a daughter of 15, is terrific with Aidan. He is a little disorganized too, and a little awkward at times, so Sarah is finally seeing some possibilities.


4. Life Changing Event:


Then she gets a phone call. Her mother is coming to the facility where she works and her secret is about to be revealed. Her "brother", fifteen year old Jake, will be joining her for the summer while her mother is in rehab after the stroke. Her brother barely knows her, a consequence or rather a condition her mother set 15 years ago. Sarah had two choices then, to give her child up for adoption or to give up her son to her mother to help raise while she finished college. She was 17 at the time. When she got an apartment and tried to get him back two years later, her mother refused and said continued to make excuses for not having her visit. She also told Sarah that she was never to tell Jake she was his birth mother. Her stepfather had already willed Sarah enough money to pay for the rest of her undergraduate degree and graduate school and she kept having hope that her mother would change her mind. When Aidan was born, she decided to back off and allow Jake the opportunity to grow up with what he already knew of as his mother and his home and friends. She stopped trying at that point but it still worried her.

Now she has a 15 year old "brother" to whom she has to continue to lie to, along with her 8 yo son, and she is tired of the lies. She has to balance her need for resolution against her decision years ago. In addition, her mother still has a great deal of money from the settlement when her second husband died so she decides to hire Sarah's new boyfriend to do her life story. Now, Sarah feels she has to either tell her secret her way or risk everyone knowing she was untrustworthy and losing everyone's trust at once. Either way, her secret will be out. Her mother can't shut her mouth and isn't able to filter like she would normally. She knows that, therapeutically, it would be good for her mother to tell everything and would be the best thing all around but what about Jack. She fears he will not be there for her or Aidan if he knows the truth.