If you are new to this blog, you may want to read the posts “In a Nutshell” or go to July 2012 and read “Sending out a Letter.” My daughter Emma Katherine Roey lied about a friend being raped and attempting suicide, claimed to have been molested by a priest, and then, just as her attorneys were about to file a law suit, Emma accused her mother (me) of physically abusing her and later of poisoning her with DDT. Emma claimed to have a toxicology report to confirm that her mother (me, again!) poisoned her, but would never turn over this report to my attorney. If you read through the blog, you will find many other examples of Emma’s lying. At one point, she even complained about the way her dad touched her and that he called her a “bitch” and a “slut” everyday. (I refused to listen to her when she talked about her dad like that.) As long as Emma continues with the lies, I will tell her story. Love and thanks to all of you who read and have written to me. If you have any questions or comments, please contact me at: losingemma@gmail.com Please continue to share the blog with others.

I have a lot of anecdotes about Emma that I want to share. Some of them may give the professionals out there some insight into what was going on with Emma.

Emma’s first try at knitting. Emma Roey, Emma Katherine Roey, Emma Kate Roey, Emma Buchheim

The Knitting Group

When we were homeschooling, in 8th grade, Emma did not want to go to the Arts Program she’d involved with since 4th grade, and so I was on the lookout for activities for my “unsocialized homeschooler.” (That term is a little joke in the homeschooling community.) I read in our local paper, The Jackson Herald, that a knitting group was forming at the Braselton Library, just a few minutes away from our home in Hoschton, Ga. I asked Emma if she would like to go, and she agreed.

The knitting group was started by a very nice woman named Jan, and she and her daughter Megan were both fabulous knitters. Meagan was about two years older than Emma. Since I am not a knitter, I took along some beadwork to work on, and the first few sessions, it was just the four of us. We worked on our projects and chatted. In addition to knitting, Jan was also a spinner, so we learned about spinning, felting, and all kinds of things about knitting. Even though I am not a knitter, it was interesting to me as well. Emma seemed to really took to knitting and when she wanted to try making a pair of socks, we got her some fancy colorful yarn and special needles. She made a beautiful sock, but wasn’t happy with it, so she took it apart and never tried making another one. I was impressed at how she learned to turn the heel and everything. Later on, Emma took to sewing. I think knitting might have been a little to labor intensive for her.

When it was just Jan and Meagan, Emma was very talkative, and everything was great. She seemed to enjoy the group, and acted like a mature young lady. Later on, a few more girls began to come to the group and Emma made a complete change. Two of the girls that started coming, Braden and Bronte, were sisters that we’d met in a homeschool choir that Emma was in and we’d even done some homeschool field trips with them. They were very nice young ladies, from a good Christian family, just the type of girls Emma would want to be around. Their mother also came and sat with us. Another young lady that came was from our neighborhood. Her parents had had some trouble with her and had pulled her out of public school. She was fairly quiet when we were there.

Once other people started coming to the group, Emma sat alone, away from everyone else and did not speak to anyone. She just sat there and knitted. I asked her what was wrong that she wouldn’t talk to anyone anymore, and she didn’t have an answer for me. It was more than being quiet, it actually seemed like she was being rude. Of course, the other girls didn’t care. They sat together and chatted. It was a small room, so Emma could have participated in the conversations, even from where she was sitting, but she kept her head down, looking at her knitting, and didn’t even try to talk to the other girls. Emma was never shy and had no reservations about speaking in public, so that couldn’t have been it. She just sat there, seeming kind of angry and withdrawn. I never understood it.

Later on, when we decided to put Emma in public school for 9th grade, we stopped going to the group. We ran into Jan and Meagan at the grocery once or twice. They were lovely people.

One of the things that Dr. Richard Born (Applied Psychological Health, Athens, Ga. appliedpsychologicalhealth.com ) got right about Emma’s Psychological Evaluation was when he said she was uncomfortable with her peers. I don’t remember how he said it, but you can go back and read the Psych Eval earlier in the blog. Was this why Emma sat in the corner, practically sulking? Emma loved going to our ladies’ Bible study group. She was usually the only teenager there, and everyone fawned over her, paid attention to her, and was impressed with how well she spoke and how smart she was? She loved all the attention, but in a group of kids her own age, she was just another kid. Was part of the problem that she was not the star of the show? She didn’t get enough attention? I don’t know.

So many parents talk about kids who aren’t comfortable around adults and would rather just hang out with kids. When they meet an adult they don’t know what to day, are bored easily, and just want to go hang out with their friends. I think in our case, with homeschooling and Emma’s other activities, maybe she was the opposite. She was comfortable around adults because they wall thought she was wonderful, but she wasn’t comfortable with her peers.

I do want to write my thoughts on homeschooling, but that will be for another post. Yes, I still think it is wonderful, and I have known so many wonderful homeschooled kids. Emma is not one of them. Would public school have made any difference? I don’t know. It might have just made her a better liar.

P.S. Congratulations, Mrs. Emma. I hope the wedding was everything you wanted it to be. I’m sorry you took your top secret wedding site down, but like I always told you, if you’re hiding what you’re doing from your mother, it is probably because you know what you are doing is wrong.