2009

Winter had once again returned to the North Shore ofMassachusetts. Those brave, committed, or unstable individualsmaintained their exercise regimen of walking or running thewalkway separating the Atlantic Ocean from Lynn Shore Drive.However, not all visited the area with the intention of keeping theirhearts clicking in their appropriate rhythms. This particularly cold,windswept morning, JT Russell found himself on one of his favoritebenches trying to ignore the cold emanating from the frigid windoff the rising tide. Just looking at the breakers rolling to shore,seemingly a white capped rippling blanket of gray, sent the chillthrough-out the man's shivering body. A floating thought of why apolar bear does not suffer from frozen testicles cracked his formerlystern face. As always, he was here to contemplate, unscramble, andseek solutions to the unsolvable. He needed answers to rhetoricalquestions such as: Why me? Where did it go wrong? Who did Ipiss-off to deserve this? Forty-eight hours after placing his fraternaltwin daughter, Susan, and four month to the day after placing hertwin brother, Billy, into the ground at the cemetery which was nowhome to his father, his first wife, Rose Marie Lloyd, Tony Delvane,and so many others who had pieces of his heart, JT sought answersto questions which were answerless. Not only had the death of thetwins beaten down the man, but the loss of intimacy with the secondwoman in his life to possess his heart and mind had brought himto his knees. The twins lived a great sixteen years and though theirlives were destined to be short-lived, what parent was ever readyto bury her or his child? The twins cursed at birth with a much tooshort prospect for a lengthy survival were treated by JT and his wifeDiana, as well as all the Russell siblings, as if their mission in lifewas to fill as much love and happiness as possible into the time thetwins were given to them. The twin's departures more than left holesin the hearts of their family members; Diana and JT were sent on avoyage of separation from which he knew not the final outcome. Astranger to him for months, Diana had handled her grief in isolationand solitude. Their once close, blessed union now resembled shipspassing in the night ... each seeking its own course, each seekingits own means of staying afloat. Fate was such a fickled master!A tragedy originally brought them together in the form of Tara's,JT's first wife, death. Now another tragedy served to rip them apartat a time when they should be clinging to each other for survival.Unhappy, yet satisfied that there were no answers to be had onthis day at this place, JT began to stand thinking fleetingly of thetesticular frozen polar bear with whom he now identified. Slowly heglanced over his shoulder, said a brief prayer, and watched one lastblanket of gray rush to shore. As he walked to his vehicle, the tearsstreaming down his cheeks began to harden and crystallize. He didnot bother to wipe them away.

2009

"Mr. Russell, are you well enough to continue? Mr. Russell, doyou need water?"

JT slowly turned his head in the direction of his lawyer's voice,nodded that he was fine, and quickly returned to the recesses of hismind where he had been visiting as his soon to be ex-wife's lawyercontinued her litany of accusations against a person he did not findrecognizable.

How could it have gotten to this point? How could two peopleonce so in love now fail in the most common of human interaction ...the ability to communicate? Diana rarely smiled any more. Thelosses of William and Susan had left her in full retreat to that portionof her mind which had a capacity for one and left no room for herequally injured partner. A Downs Syndrome set of fraternal twins, ararity in the annals of genetics, lay at the basis of the failure of thisunion. When Diana finally became pregnant once again followingseveral failed pregnancies, at the advanced age of thirty-nine, herlikelihood of having a successful pregnancy sank significantly.Following a positive result on her amniocentesis, they knew theywere in trouble. A child born with the twin's condition may have alife spanning decades, but that would be decades of special needsand services in learning to perform life's basic functions. Multiplythat by two children and even the medics were at a loss for thestatistical life expectancy and developmental challenges of the pair.Diana and JT faced yet another "pot hole" on their road to a happylife. Prudence would have most likely suggested a termination of thepregnancy when weighed against the potential mentally exhaustingtask confronting them with its fatal result a foregone conclusion.Their constant discussions were viewed from all angles of fairnessto the parents, to the fetuses, to the siblings, to the household, to theeconomic impact, but the concerns were not necessarily in that orderof importance. Diana's position fluctuated from moment to moment,hour to hour, day to day. She feared that her biological clock wouldno longer allow her to experience that which she desired most—achild with the man she loved more than life. JT, on the other hand,was adamant. He could not comprehend the willful termination ofany life after having experienced the losses of Rose Marie Lloyd, hisfather, Tony Delvane, and his beloved Tara to cruel fate. JT made hisstance well known; however, he held his final position until the lastpossible decision demanding moment. He told Diana as sincerelyas he was able that the decision was hers to make. He concludedby saying that together they could get through whatever life hadto offer them. In order to show her confidence, love, and supportfor her husband, an emotionally torn Diana suppressed her strongapprehensions and chose to continue the pregnancy. Looking back,JT viewed his position on that decision as the beginning of the endof their marriage, and he held himself absolutely to blame!

Both the twins and their expected developmental problems wereaddressed by the entire Russell family and resulted in sixteen yearsof love, joy, and commitment. It was during the sixteenth year of thetwins' lives that all came tumbling down. William died first duringhis sixteenth year, and Susan passed within four months that sameyear. The impact was devastating on the family. The losses wereheartbreaking to the parents. The result was fatal to the marriage.All the king's horses and all the king's men could not bring Dianaand JT together again.

"Therefore, Your Honor, the petitioner, Diana Brian-Russell,seeks dissolution of this marriage and fifty percent of all maritalassets including the sale of the home on Lynnfield Street, in Lynn,Massachusetts."

"What say you, Mr. Terminal, as representative of therespondent's position?"

"Your Honor, the respondent agrees to any and all requests ofthe petitioner."

The judge raised an eyebrow as he glanced at the solemn manholding his head in his hands.

"That is entirely generous of you, Mr. Russell. Are you inagreement with this position?" JT lifted his head from his hands andsimply answered in the affirmative.

"James Thurber Russell, Diana Brian-Russell, I render thismarriage dissolved in accordance with all mutually agreed uponstipulations. Good fortune, Mr. Russell and Ms. Russell."

The gavel brought JT's consciousness to the courtroom fromwherever it had been in full retreat.

"It's over, Mr. Russell," whispered Peter Terminal to...