Happy birthday, Miechelle!
Just a short one but… My cousin, Michelle, she who told me that Santa Claus wasn’t real, when I was six and she was eight years old, is 52 today. Holy shit, we are getting old.
Well, I hope you have a wonderful birthday. And I know I’ve said this before, but angry as my mother was at the time when you “spoilt” Christmas for me… And me too – I was furious because I realized immediately that it was true… you did me a favour, cuz. You helped me to think critically from then on.
Skeptical Exaddict 
Thank you – what a nice birthday wish 🙂 Some comments …. we were 10 and 8 firstly – I know this because I was only staying with you so that I could finish school at St. Annes while my mother was living with my granny in Salt River. As you know, your mother and father were so angry about it, that they asked my mother to remove me and I had to change schools – I remember the rush around getting my WGJS second hand clothing that Xmas – she was obviously poor and I remember the embarrassment of being the new girl in Std 5 and wearing 2nd hand clothes. I also remember learning that telling the truth was dangerous – even with adults that professed to be good people. As you know, I remember the time I stayed with your family very fondly actually but was horribly terribly hurt that you told on and very angry about the effect it had on my life ultimately – I was badly badly badly bullied at Wynberg – so badly I had to go to a psychologist – another thing I learnt, at the ripe old age of 11, was utter drivel – they asked me to draw a picture – I drew Cinderella – I loved fairy stories – hell, I still do and that somehow meant that I was trying to replace my father in my mother’s life – urgh. In any event, I remember not really liking you very much after that and I had loved you so much before – that is why I wanted you to know about how adults lie to children 🙂 Then we met again when I was an adult and you were possibly in Matric at Plumstead – something like that – you were living in that house near Plumstead Station – yes, I had refused to see your family after that debacle and after my mother told me why I had to leave. You were so lost, so sad and very dark and I forgave you then because I finally understood that you had not told on just about. Now that we are old buggers, I can obviously look back at all of this and just type about it factually but I loved you Jerome, that is why I wanted you to know the truth – not the truth about Father Xmas, the truth about adults and people in power and how they lie and manipulate children – I have loved a lot of people over my life and I have found that very few of them can stand the truth at the end, no matter what they say. I have watched your posts etc on FB and I know that I loved you for a reason – you are such a good person, a truly good person – I knew it then already and I still know it now. Thank you for this memory and yes, we are getting fucking old (but wise ….. I hope ….)
Love you 🙂
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I got the ages wrong because it was actually you were either nine or ten and I was six going on seven. I’m 49 now. So you’re right about your age.
I’m so sorry to hear about the bullying. Yes, I told but was too young to understand what you were trying to do at the time – I only understood later. My own disillusionment with adults only came much later, around the age of 12. But I saw it differently in that I understood my parents had good intentions but were some combination of wrong, ignorant, indoctrinated and in a way, naive. You had it rough, far more so than I.
And I love you too. I wish things had gone differently. I wish I hadn’t told my mother what you said.
I am once again on a 3 day facebook ban, so that’s why i couldn’t write on your wall. Didn’t know if you would even see the message and link to this in your inbox, but I’m glad you did.
I’m in this group called “that’s a strange hill to die on but at least you’re dead”, where you post statements and people must agree (dead) or disagree (alive), and this jerk who keeps spamming the group with selfies including him and a celeb, including a porn star he claimed he slept with but did not… made a status where he claimed that he loved when people screen-shotted his posts because it immortalized him in memes… So I screen shotted his last photo and crudely wrote TWAT over his head, then commented it with “happy now?”. And got taken down for harassment/bullying.
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Also… my parents took the whole Catholic thing very seriously. Your words helped me to break out of the cycle of credulous belief in religion. Nobody did my brother the same favour. He bought into it completely and is now even more religious than they were. A pity… and back when he used to speak to me, he would try to convince me to return to religion… debate me just like those ultra religious people I debated online. It’s weird how different we turned out.
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For what it’s worth, you always were different. So different, in fact, that when the whole Father Xmas incident happened, I actually thought it was Christopher who told and not you, never you. Hence the horrible hurt and betrayal when my Mother told me. It was never that I took the two of you aside to like break the Father Xmas secret, it was that your parents had told me I was to involve myself in the whole Father Xmas thing and I didn’t want to – in other words, they were angry because I wouldn’t lie with them and I am damn sure I told you that at the time too – that is probably also why you were furious – I was slighting your parents but, in hindsight, I am glad I stuck to my guns – shows I had integrity, even then and I am proud of that. I have always been able to “see” people in some way and I really do mean always. It’s like I can see their intentions or something – your brother, I am sorry to tell you, has always been a little bit spiteful. Now that I am older, I think he might be a narcissist because he has been always been inclined to do whatever it took to get what he wanted – supply. He would lie, tell on, invent, fabricate, had delusions of grandeur, even as a child. You remember that rope ladder you had on your tree when I stayed with you? He always insisted that he had to be allowed to climb it first. If anyone else dared to, he would shake it until they fell off – kinda repulsive if you think about it. I remember when we all used to get dressed up as superheroes – you two had batman and superman costumes – I would just pretend to be someone and fly around the garden on our bikes, chasing each other. You two would fling your bikes as you would get to den and your dad got pissed one day because Crhistopher’s bike had a ding – he told your father that I was riding his bike – which I had been told never to do by your father – I didn’t like him – never did – wasn’t even slightly surprised when I heard about the mess with Josh and your mother and the wild accusations – nothing had changed about him in my mind. As to FB – honestly, I am disgusted with the site and their spying and asslicking of the Chinese not to mention their repulsive kowtowing to the SJW’s here (whom I happen to despise at the best of times) and so I will not put a moment of my time into that site anymore. I think I actually subscribed to your blog at some stage and that is why I got notified though I don’t get notifications for any other posts – maybe it’s because it had my name in it? I don’t know. Don’t really care. Everything happens for a reason and we were meant to talk about this today I guess – grown up stuff for my birthday 🙂
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At the end of last year, I was requested to speak to a mediator that was dealing with my brother and his ex. The guy recommended I let Josh visit my brother’s ex even though my brother had said he would cut ties with me if I did that. And I did, so he cut ties with me immediately, no doubt giving other reasons to other people.
He even tried to use me as an excuse to go after his ex, as if exposing her children to me was somehow putting them in danger and thus made her a bad mother.
I’m glad he cut ties with me – it’s for the best.
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If one is lucky enough to be “discarded” by a narcissist, one can truly thank the gods ….
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