Chapter 68 - A Small Public Room
Leo's guardianship review included a child welfare professional's visit. Dorothy told me about it afterward, because Leo had been anxious about a stranger asking questions at home.
“They played with blocks,” she said. “He showed her the garden and told her the train cake was better than the one in the bakery window.”
The evaluator spoke separately with Dorothy, Adrian, and Vanessa, reviewed the care schedule, and observed ordinary interactions. Leo wasn't asked to choose a guardian.
Adrian complained to Noah that the assessment felt intrusive.
“Imagine how it feels to Leo,” Noah said. “Keep the adults' discomfort in perspective.”
The comment reached me through Adrian, delivered without complaint. I smiled at that. People had been trying to tell him for years that other people's boundaries were not personal insults.
Later I asked Dorothy how she was doing.
“Tired,” she said. “But not alone.”
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The interim order had allowed independent respite coverage. For one afternoon a week she could leave the house without making arrangements through Adrian's executive assistant.
That was the kind of improvement no newspaper would print.
