Happy Ending for Shannon
It's not often that a missing child is found, alive and well, twenty-four days after going missing.
Shannon Matthews, nine, of Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, was found hiding in the base of a divan bed, with her abductor in the space next to her.
Wonderful news! The whole nation rejoices, yes?
Well, it's not quite as simple as that.
Paul Drake, 39 (I love the way newspapers always do that age thing after the name) who abducted her, is also known as Michael Donovan, 39, for no apparent reason, and he turns out to be the uncle of her stepfather, Craig Meehan, 22, who lives with her mother, Karen, 32, who also has a further six children, varying ages, by five different fathers, names and ages unknown, probably even to Karen, 32.
Poor Shannon, 9, didn't quite make McCann-grade newspaper coverage when she was missing, because she's from Dewsbury, which isn't glamorous, and she's not photogenic and is just that bit too old to look cute. Sorry, Shannon, we just didn't care enough about you, really.
The police tried to find someone in Shannon's family to make the usual tearful televised appeal for her return, but didn't find anyone with the sex appeal of Kate McCann, so in the end didn't bother as they felt that if we saw any of the rest of the family it would just make us wish that the rest of them would get lost, too.
Paul Drake, 39, alias Michael Donovan, 39, turns out to be the uncle of Craig Meehan, 22, who is politely described as Shannon's "stepfather" but we all know that's police-speak for "latest in a long line of boyfriends".
So, perhaps they'll return Shannon to the bosom of her loving family. In which case she'll be pregnant herself in five years, maybe four, will do badly at school, leave early, never have any sort of a proper job and have seven children by five different fathers in about fifteen years' time.
Otherwise, as Those in Charge seem to be doing, they'll put her with foster parents, in which case she'll have a slightly better chance.
But - - a happy and fulfilling life ahead of her? I wouldn't bet on it.
Shannon Matthews, nine, of Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, was found hiding in the base of a divan bed, with her abductor in the space next to her.
Wonderful news! The whole nation rejoices, yes?
Well, it's not quite as simple as that.
Paul Drake, 39 (I love the way newspapers always do that age thing after the name) who abducted her, is also known as Michael Donovan, 39, for no apparent reason, and he turns out to be the uncle of her stepfather, Craig Meehan, 22, who lives with her mother, Karen, 32, who also has a further six children, varying ages, by five different fathers, names and ages unknown, probably even to Karen, 32.
Poor Shannon, 9, didn't quite make McCann-grade newspaper coverage when she was missing, because she's from Dewsbury, which isn't glamorous, and she's not photogenic and is just that bit too old to look cute. Sorry, Shannon, we just didn't care enough about you, really.
The police tried to find someone in Shannon's family to make the usual tearful televised appeal for her return, but didn't find anyone with the sex appeal of Kate McCann, so in the end didn't bother as they felt that if we saw any of the rest of the family it would just make us wish that the rest of them would get lost, too.
Paul Drake, 39, alias Michael Donovan, 39, turns out to be the uncle of Craig Meehan, 22, who is politely described as Shannon's "stepfather" but we all know that's police-speak for "latest in a long line of boyfriends".
So, perhaps they'll return Shannon to the bosom of her loving family. In which case she'll be pregnant herself in five years, maybe four, will do badly at school, leave early, never have any sort of a proper job and have seven children by five different fathers in about fifteen years' time.
Otherwise, as Those in Charge seem to be doing, they'll put her with foster parents, in which case she'll have a slightly better chance.
But - - a happy and fulfilling life ahead of her? I wouldn't bet on it.
posted by Daphne at 9:46 am
3 Comments:
Watching her family on the news was pretty emotional, though I suspect there is a lot more to the weirdness that hasn't come out yet.
Wonderful writing, Daphne. I love it when you get on a roll ! Obviously you DID try a venison burger the other day and it's working on you now.
Of course you lose valuable bloggy points for mentioning the McCanns even though it wasn't in glowing terms.
As you so eloquently stated, for various reasons, Shannon wasn't really very newsworthy and I certainly heard nothing about her disappearance (and therefore her being found) on the news on this side of the pond.
Then again, Oprah has a new show being promoted and that Hilton bimbo chipped a finger nail last week so there hasn't been much time for any international or world news here anyway.
International = Puerto Rico, Mexico and Canada !!
Daphe, that's one hell of a dose of perfectly understandable cycnicism. It could almost have been one of those posts that I would have written if I had the nerve.
Of course, I really must confess that Shannon and her family are just the sort of people that end up in my classes, so I can't really say much as it's my future and job stability...fantastic.
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