Forum Discussion

Linda_D's avatar
Linda_D
Member
5 years ago

Fighting cancer, husband wants out, children taken away

Hi everyone,

I'm writing on behalf on my sister who is currently fighting cancer and is going through a very difficult time, a year and a half after her cancer diagnosis. This is her story.  

Jane and John have been married for a number of years and have several children. There are tensions in the marriage, because John has a hands off attitude when it comes to parenting, whereas Jane believes some boundaries, like attending school, helping with chores, and a limit to computer gaming, are essential. Jane does most of the heavy lifting in the marriage, giving up her career. Jane, in addition, starts working several part time jobs while John goes through regular periods of unemployment.

The stress of this probably contributes to Jane's cancer diagnosis. After two surgeries and 6 months of chemo, Jane is taking hormone blocking medication and as luck would have it, is going through the most intense part of the menopause. Jane finds the stress (and the effects of the medication) too much and loses her temper a few times, while continuing to do the parenting on her own.

John, perhaps not sure whether he wants this burden, is undermining Jane. "People have put their lives on hold for you!". John encourages the children to rebel, and to secretly record Jane in order to "gather evidence". Over Christmas drinks, John arranges with his male police relative to launch a "family violence" order against Jane. Jane is forced to flee the house and has to move in with her elderly parents since she sold her pre marriage unit to fund her children's education. John launches divorce, violence and financial proceedings against Jane, claiming her remaining savings since he, he now claims, is the "family". He also bans any communication between Jane and her children and threatens her elderly parents to never see their grandchildren.  

Jane faces court action, solicitors bills, police checks against her future employment and her cancer treatment, alone. She is not allowed to see or talk to her own children. Noone wants to hear Jane's story, the police don't speak to her, there is no institutional support. Jane and her elderly parents feel abandoned, intimidated and fearful of impending court actions.

Being on the other end of the world, I feel absolutely heartbroken not being able to be there for her and give her all the support she needs. She has spent all her life caring and providing for her children and her husband and now it all being taken away from her, at the time when she needs their support. The total injustice of it all infuriates me, especially him being able to manipulate the law and using it to his advantage, as well as totally ignoring the effects that cancer and the medications can have.  

I understand that cancer takes its toll not only on the person affected but on the family as well, but surely there must be ways to protect those who are directly affected. 

If any of you have any advice for her or can help with the emotional/psychological/legal aspects of it, or simply know someone who went through similar experiences - every little bit of help or advice would be greatly appreciated. 

Thank you for reading this and please take care of yourself and your loved ones.


 
 
coping
emotions
family
partners
  • Jwrenn's avatar
    Jwrenn
    Member
    5 years ago
    @Linda_D I just feel like giving your sister, and you, a hug. She needs support not crap like that. I burst into tears in my breast care nurses office and she suggested seeing a psychologist with experience dealing with people with cancer. She sounds like she would need to vent to a specialist like that. I hope she gets the help that she needs. Take care xx
  • Zoffiel's avatar
    Zoffiel
    Member
    5 years ago
    Difficult situation. The law is not designed to protect women from men, it's designed to protect vulnerable parties from the people abusing them. It's not gendered even if the overwhelming percentage of violence is.

    I wonder how a person who is described as selfish and self indulgent will cope with looking after children when he has avoided that responsibility in the past. There won't be much in it for him financially if they are teenagers and she has no money. I'm curious about his motive.

    If there is evidence of violent or irrational behaviour in the home, the police and courts have little choice but to consider it. Regardless of the circumstances of the accused. The inclination to believe a perpetrator is just having a bad day has resulted in some catastrophic events in the last couple of years. It's not surprising they are cautious.

     Yes, I know, I sound like a horrible person, but you must bear in mind there are processes in place that must be adhered to. Orders banning even supervised contact are a fairly serious step to take, though. Is he that convincing or is there more to it? These are the questions that need to be asked, in a completely unemotional way. Which is very difficult and probably not what you want to hear. There are greater issues at stake, currently playing out at increasing volume in this country, where those making complaints must be taken seriously.

    If he is manipulating her, for whatever reason, removing oxygen from the fire is the most effective defence. I think she should concentrate on establishing some contact with the kids and not focus too much on an expensive and protracted legal battle to overturn whatever orders are in place. They need to know she loves them and cares about them. He is likely to decide it's all too hard, if he's the sort of person you seem to think he is. Nothing like a couple of hungry, hormonal young people in the house to cramp your style. 
  • Linda_D's avatar
    Linda_D
    Member
    5 years ago
    Thank you so much for your valuable feedback and support, Sister and Cath62, I really appreciate it. I'm sending the link to my sister as well so she can read all of the responses. 

    It does sound like a good idea to check with the domestic violence support group. I will tell her to contact them as this is definitely the case here. The trick that he's trying here is that he's portraying himself as a victim and her as an aggressor. And yes, there are many people (relatives, friends etc.) who can confirm the true side of things.
    The issue with the police is that they never even contacted her. Noone ever came to talk to her and find out her side of the story and to get the full picture. All very suspicious to me...

    Cath62, I'm so sorry to hear what you went through with your husband, it sounds absolutely horrendous. And with such a small baby on your hands... I really feel for you and your son and hope that you've managed to get your life back and recover from that experience. Sending you a big hug and hope that things got much better for you xx   
         
  • Cath62's avatar
    Cath62
    Member
    5 years ago
    Hi @LindaD, what hell your sister is going through and how brave are you to tell her story. Your sister's health is everything. She needs to stay in touch with her oncologist and GP. She also needs to have psychological support so proper counselling to help her deal with this emotionally. In addition she needs a legal representative to help her navigate the courts. That legal representative help take some pressure off her trying to figure out what to do and what is needed to fight for her children. Is she still working. It must be hard for her. Remove any other stresses from her life. Is she trying to work with all this too? 

    My first husband was aggressive, manipulating and controlling. It took alot for me to get him to leave but he did when our son was 8 months old. He cleaned out our bank account and left me with the mortgage and our baby boy.  I was glad to see the back of him and only ever crossed paths with him once again when the looser put in a review of his child support wanting to reduce it to zero.  He never saw his son again and eventually paid $21.67 per month in child support till my son was 18. The system is really hard for women and he manipulated his income. In a way I was lucky he had nothing to do with me or his son ever again. 

    I wish you and your sister all the best. I hope the steps she takes gets her the children back. As teenagers they should be able to decide themselves where they want to be and a lawyer can make that happen. Best care to you as well. You will need to look after yourself too. No one can help from an empty cup as they say. Sending you a big hug xx
  • Sister's avatar
    Sister
    Member
    5 years ago
    I don't know a lot about the letter of the law but I think that what Jane needs most is legal representation and an advocate who understands the process.  My first thought would be for her to contact a domestic violence support group.  From there I would think that she should be able to get more information.  I would also think that Melbourne police would be rather sensitive to the idea that they were being used in any way (re: the male relative).  Anything like that should be going through completely independent channels.  And what @flclover said is a good point.  I'm sure that there are many people who are aware of the family situation - not necessarily friends but those who have a more distanced view.  DV is a terrible thing to deal with.
  • Linda_D's avatar
    Linda_D
    Member
    5 years ago
    Hi FLClover,
    Thank you so much for your advice and kind words. <3 My sister and her family are in Melbourne. I absolutely agree that the most important thing right now is her health and she needs to concentrate on that. At the same time, her children were always such an important part of her life and now that they've been taken away from her and she has to fight for them I worry that it's way too much for her, especially in the fragile and vulnerable state that she is in after all that cancer treatment. Least of all I want it to affect her health. And I also agree with you regarding the children, they are certainly not stupid (and hers are teenagers) and I know that one day they will get back to her. She has always been a good mother to them and they were her top priority in life and still are. And they know that. I'm even wondering whether they'd ever forgive themselves for not reaching out to her during all of this. But of course we don't know what their father has been telling them... The most disgusting and unfair thing I find is that he's misused the law designed to protect women from violence by their husbands...   
    But the most important thing right now is her health. Fighting cancer is a long and strenuous way, and I will try to give her all the support that I can in this and also in her fight for her children. 
  • FLClover's avatar
    FLClover
    Member
    5 years ago
    Hi @Linda_D
    That’s quite a difficult situation that your sister is in. Actually, it’s very distressing just reading about it. I don’t even have words to describe the actions of her ‘husband.’ One thing is for sure, she definitely needs him gone from her life. But not her children 😢. I’m not sure what country she is, and what legal action she could take in terms of an appeal etc. I think that might be the best thing to do, as negotiating with the hubby seems unlikely. If he had a soul, it never would’ve come to this. The last thing she needs though, is more stress. I’d say focus on getting her to calm down any way you can, which I do understand is extremely difficult. But being calm will help clear her mind, detach emotionally, so she can fight him using facts and evidence of them. She’ll need to probably contact her medical specialists and get proof from them that the medications she’s on can cause this sort of frustration, and then possibly get statements from friends etc to say he was never helpful and contributed to her breakdown. Looks like it could take a while though to get some result, which is why it’s important that she remain as calm and collected as possible in the meantime. She can’t sabotage her health any further. If she wants to help her kids and get them back, she needs to help herself first. Children are not stupid, they understand lots of things. After a while, they themselves might realise what their dad has done and demand to see their mum again.
    Have faith, she can get her children back. Just make sure it’s done correctly. And see if she can get a psychologist to help her work through the despair of it right now. 
    I wish your sister all the luck in the world 🍀🍀☘️♥️♥️♥️