101 Healing Stories for Kids and Teens

friend – it may be helpful to assist the child to explore possible ways for coping through presuppositional questions
such as those mentioned under the Therapeutic Characteristics at the beginning of this story and as further dis-
cussed in Chapter 15.

STORY 100

LUCY MAC’S STORY

(contributed by Corin Eicke)

Therapeutic Characteristics

Problems Addressed

■ Death

■ Loss of parents

■ Grief

■ Loneliness

Resources Developed

■ Showing kindness

■ Going out of your way to help another

■ Enjoying another’s happiness

■ Cultivating friendships

Outcomes Offered

■ Kindness

■ Friendship

■ Happiness

Lucy Mac was in my year for mentally gifted kids. I was one of her best friends at the time and
still am. We shared a room at the boarding school. My favourite subject was math. Hers was, well,
she didn’t really have one. She loved them all.
I was chosen to come 2 years before the event. Lucy was chosen 5 years before.
It was summer holidays. Lucy and I were both planning to go home for the summer. Lucy got
a phone call one day before she was due to go home. She ran to her bed and cried and cried. I went
up to her and asked her what was wrong. She snivelled, “My mum and dad are dead!” I stepped back
shocked. I asked, “How?” She yelled, “Their house burnt down!”
She didn’t go home for the summer and neither did I. I stayed to help Lucy get over it and to
comfort her. I got her breakfast, lunch, and dinner from the cafeteria. She didn’t eat any of it though.
When school started again, I persuaded her to come back to some classes with me. She came but sat
at the back of the classroom and wasn’t happy at all. All night I heard her mumbling. I thought that
she was sleep talking. She wasn’t. She told me in the morning that she was the only one left in her
family. She also said that her brother died when she was four.

KIDS’ OWN STORIES

Kids’ Own Healing Stories 225