Gaslighting: Psychological intimidation, maliciousness, an attempt to make (someone) believe that he or she is going insane (as by subjecting that person to a series of experiences that have no rational explanation).”
Without a partner, lover, or relative nearby during our feared and festive flights of life, our ribs cave. You cannot eat cake alone on your birthday, attend a funeral without a shoulder next to you, or celebrate a finished project without your best friend.
Greta exposes the mutilation, gaslighting, and abuse that is inflicted on her emotions, psychology, mental and physical health, and her finances.
Eve, a manipulative predator, employs gaslighting to destroy a trusting and intimate relationship of thirty-five years between Greta and Dodger. When Dodger met Eve, she found her suitor, sponsor, butler, and honey-do mate. She wields fierce control over him. Dodger obliges her menacing, mystifying, irrational gaslighting methods to incite Greta’s self-doubt, mental decline, and financial depletion. The real estate investments Greta and Dodger own are facing foreclosure, as he collects rent to cover Dragon’s consumption and vacations, leaving the mortgages in default. Dodger is forbidden to communicate with Greta, ensuring her emotional decline exacerbates.
While Dodger occupies a home with Greta, he engages in repetitive attacks, stalking, frightening, and psychotic behavior to destabilize Greta. Two of their properties are in foreclosure. The remaining investment is at risk, forcing Greta to relocate to New York to salvage their home. Hospital visits, medication, and a desire to die battle against her will to survive. Greta’s story serves as a testament to the power of friendship—not in solving her problems, but in safeguarding her from being renounced.
Last Page.
Closing Paragraph: I’ve lived without a partner, lover, or relative nearby; my ribs did not cave. I ate cake alone on my birthday, cried at a friend’s funeral without a shoulder next to me, and celebrated the liberation from Dragon and Dodger.
ADVENTURERS IN LIVINGNESS 