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A mother's distress has lessons for us all

By Dr Sophie Jayamaha


Many of you heard the news of a man who injured more than a dozen of people driving along a crowded pedestrian area in Melbourne, yesterday afternoon. Did you also see his mother being a victim when she was getting harassed by those who wanted to capture her in their cameras? I was moved by the distress of this mother as much as the distress of the innocent people who got injured.

The mother became a target of the media when she was coming to courts to support his son.  I do not think she was proud of her son's behaviour, yet she had to be there for her son. That's what mothers do. She was covering her face with her scarf in shame. She had only her handbag to defend her when she was harassed by inconsiderate and insensitive people. Even a mother of a criminal feels motherly instinct to protect and care for her son and she deserves some privacy and the same respect as another citizen of this country.

She should not be a victim of being a mother. She must have been torn into pieces many times when her son was on drugs and not living the life that she always hoped for. He may have been a difficult child and the mother may have had a hard life to bring him up and she may have had her own difficulties that we are unaware of. Until we hear her side of the story we have no right to judge her.

 We must be compassionate and sensitive towards her and thoughtful that she is ashamed to be in the public eye. No mother will ever want her son to be a criminal. No doubt that her story will tell us valuable messages that could transform our society, our education system and root causes of mental illness.





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