Guilty

My sisters and I went to my mom's court date. It was nerve racking. Right when we walked in the doors we saw my mom going through security. I just froze and turned to look at my sister Lauren. "What do we do?" She shrugged. We waited, hearts pounding furiously, until she got through. We went through security and stopped in the lobby fearing we would run into her. Keep in mind she has no idea we even know she's gotten into this situation. Eventually we climbed the stairs to courtroom 3. I was thinking the whole time how ridiculous it was that I was scared of seeing my own mother. I just couldn't believe we were there about to see her on trial.

We made it into the court room without seeing her. We sat in the back row of the room. Shortly after we sat down we saw her come in the room. She saw us and kept walking, not even glancing our way. She sat about 3 rows ahead of us and started doing something in her lap. I saw her, out of the corner of my eye, look casually over her shoulder a few times making sure it was us she had really seen, I assume. She had her hair in that high ponytail she's been wearing her hair in lately, it sat literally right on top of her head. She had on a light pink shirt. After about 10 minutes she got up and left the room. She was ninth on the docket and we had no way of knowing what case they were on. We all wondered where she had gone and hoped she hadn't left because of us. We heard a case about a marine who stole MRE's and tried to sell them at some gun shop he owned in rural KY. He had to go to trial.

What seemed like an eternity went by and finally she came back in with her attorney, who none of us recognized. Her attorney showed her to a seat near the front and she sat with her shoulders hunched over; you could tell she was crying. It was one of the saddest things I have ever seen. I wanted to run over and hug her and tell her I loved her and that everything would be OK. But I couldn't. It was heartbreaking. They called her name and it was her turn. We quickly learned that she had plead guilty, had her charges lessened, and was sentenced to 2 years probation with supervision and mandatory substance abuse counseling. We were disappointed, but along with probation comes drug testing and if she violates her probation it's a mandatory 180 days in jail. I think the crap will hit the fan sooner or later.