Is it normal for my doctor friend to move in with my molester?
My husband and I live in a 5bdrm house and rent furnished rooms to lodgers. Our son has left home, my husband works long hours as a lawyer, I was lonely, so it seemed like a good idea. One of our lodgers was gay doctor "Dave" (46) a recent med school grad who worked as an intern. Dave quickly became good friends with me, my husband and became a mentor to our son Mark, who is a med student. I taught Dave Ashtanga yoga every day and spent hours mending his clothes as his intern salary was low and his working hours long; he didn't have the time or $$ to buy new clothes. I did so many things for him because he had no one to look after him. We treated him like a brother. My husband even introduced him to his brother, who is one of the most senior physicians in the state.
We had another lodger, "John" (53), who was a witty and urbane divorced gentleman with two children, worked as a recruitment consultant, but was an alcoholic and chain smoker. We all became good friends. I am a recovered addict and ex-smoker and John found that difficult because it probably made him feel like a failure, even though I was always kind to him and never judgmental. John would act out by sometimes insulting me but I was sympathetic and put up with a lot before I finally put my foot down. John had a lot of repressed anger towards certain demographics, e.g. sexually-liberated women and anyone he perceived as lower class. One week, my husband was away on business and John and I hung out together and shared a drink and a joint, which is something I rarely do. Later that evening, John molested me against my will but fortunately it did not involve penetration. Nonetheless, I felt very angry, violated & sullied, esp since he kept on doing it over and over again, despite my protestations. He knew I was happily married and I found it insulting, like he thought of me as a tramp. Eventually, I ran away, slammed my bedroom door, and that was the end of that. John had a penchant for stealing alcohol from his housemates whilst drunk and we had numerous problems with him. However, he wouldn't move out and I felt sorry for him and we all still loved him. I did not confront him about the molestation because I thought that he was too ashamed by it. We did not speak of it for months but I confided in Dave (the doctor) about it a few weeks later.
Some months later, a female cardiologist from Ireland, Jane (39), moved in with all of us and quickly became friendly with John (my molestor). Jane didn't know even the most basic history of her own country, such as the Irish War of Independence. I found it bizarre for anyone to be that ignorant, let alone a doctor, let alone a specialist.
She didn't even know much about general medicine, outside cardiology. She knew very little about anything, really.
1. IS THAT NORMAL?
It was impossible for me to bond with someone that vacuous. Everybody else also found her to be stupid and Dave (the other doctor) did not seem to like her, as she started giving Dave unsolicited professional advice. After living with us for 3 days, she barked at Dave, "You need to learn to hand over!" because he was late coming home and had to go back to work later that evening. Later that week, Jane asked me, "Does Dave bring his little boys home?" I found this question highly offensive as Dave is a gay man, not a paedophile. Jane was obviously a bigot. She also refused to share her electric toothbrush handle with Dave, even though they are designed to be used by entire families, each with a different-coloured brush head. She used a half a bottle of bleach to clean the bathroom and was clearly germ phobic. I gathered she thinks gay men are disease vectors.
One night we all went to a concert and had a meal afterwards in a cafe. John started insulting me in front of everyone. When John molested me, he pretty much gave up the right to insult me. Jane detected my distress and grilled me, as she was prone to do. Jane was a busy-body who did not respect personal boundaries. I explained that John insulted me. Jane told me I was over-reacting. I explained that John does not get to insult someone he molested, that everything is context-dependent and she didn't understand the context. Jane immediately sided with John and treated me like a crazy liar. She is a "molestation denier", in league with Holocaust deniers, as far as I'm concerned. We had a house meeting and I confronted my assailant, John, who denied molesting me, of course. It soon became apparent that his alcoholism had given him chronic amnesia and he couldn't remember what he did last night, let alone several months prior when the molestation occurred. I wanted him to leave the house but he had nowhere to go so he agreed to go to AA meetings instead and I let him stay until he could find alternate accommodation. He resisted going to the meetings but eventually did and came to enjoy them. Finally he admitted step 1: that he WAS an alcoholic.
Last Monday, I woke up and realised that Jane had moved out, and had taken Dave, John, and Matthew with her. They had obviously packed their bags and sneaked out in the middle of the night. She even took Matthew (28) the "fly-in fly-out" geologist who lived in the 5th bedroom, who I used to drive to the airport every fortnight at 4:30am, for no charge (a 1hr round trip). Jane had come into my life and left two months later with every single one of my housemates - they were like family to me - after offering them rooms at much lower rent than what they were paying me. (Of course, with me, they got a beautiful house full of furniture plus a housekeeper & gardener.) Jane left owing me over $700. John the molester left owing me $1500. I was glad to see the back of Jane and John, but why did my good friend Dave have to go with them? They had obviously been hatching the getaway plan right from after the house meeting when I confronted my assailant. In the last two weeks, while they were hatching their plan, Dave watched me mend his clothes and said nothing, humiliating me in front of Jane. He let me book and pay for ballet tickets at $95 each. He let me book a holiday to Japan. I realise that Jane had a lot of jealousy of me because even though I was 8 years older, I have a wonderful husband and son, and all of the things that she lacks. Jane is narcissistic, deceptive, manipulative, jealous and destructive.
IS JANE A SOCIOPATH?
They moved out 9 days ago, but Matthew has already moved out of their new house!
2. IS IT NORMAL FOR MY GAY DOCTOR FRIEND(?)TO MOVE OUT WITH THE ALCOHOLIC WHO MOLESTED ME AND THE WOMAN WHO DENIED IT AND CALLED DAVE A PAEDOPHILE?
3. IS THAT KIND OF BETRAYAL NORMAL?
4. IS IT FORGIVABLE?
5. AM I TO BLAME BY CONFRONTING MY ASSAILANT AND THUS DESTABILISING OUR HOME LIFE?
The day after they all left, I went to the police and reported the molestation and John is being charged. That made me feel better and less like a victim.
6. IS IT NORMAL THAT MY SELF-ESTEEM IS SHATTERED?