RIVERSIDE Terry Probyn took a brush to her daughter's blond hair and slowly combed through it – a tender ritual she had not performed in 18 years, when her girl, Jaycee Lee Dugard, was just 11.
Reunited with Jaycee last week in Northern California, Probyn got to play mother again to the girl who was snatched away from her – touching her hair, kissing her face, delighting at the sound of her voice.
Tina Dugard, Terry's sister and Jaycee's aunt, sat and watched – disbelief mingled with joy.
"I remember thinking, 'Wow, she's French-braiding Jaycee's hair for the first time in 18 years,' " Tina Dugard said.
The reunification of Terry Probyn with her daughter – and her interactions, for the first time, with Jaycee's two daughters, 11 and 15 – played out in private as the chilling tale of Jaycee's alleged abductor, Phillip Craig Garrido, seized headlines worldwide.
In an exclusive interview with the Orange County Register, Tina Dugard spoke for the first time publicly about how the reunified family is doing. She spent five days with Probyn, Jaycee and the two girls.
"There's a sense of comfort and optimism, a sense of happiness. … Jaycee and her girls are happy," said Tina Dugard, who was 13 when Jaycee was born and very close to her.
Terry Probyn lived with her sister for 10 years before recently moving out.
"People probably want to think that it's been this horrible, scary thing for all of us," Tina Dugard said of the past several days as the family sought to reconnect in cloistered rooms, with law enforcement officials and counselors hovering – and media from around the world trying to interview them.
"(But) the horrible, scary thing happened 18 years ago, and continued to happen for the last 18 years. The darkness and despair (has lifted.)"
Read more here
source
No comments:
Post a Comment