SISTER STRAIN My sister never wants to spend time with me — should I just give up on her?
DEAR DEIDRE: MY sister was taken into care when she was four and I was 15 – because my dad had drug problems and Mum just couldn’t cope.
She was adopted but we were allowed contact twice a year. We would sit in a room with a social worker, for an hour or two. When she turned 18, we then made our own arrangements.
Mum has now died and I now usually meet my sister in a café. But she’s never wanted more than just that hour or so, twice a year.
She’s 21 and I am wondering whether to give up, as I always feel I’m treading on eggshells.
Should I let her go?
DEIDRE SAYS:
Keep up the contact. Both of you went through a lot of childhood trauma. That haunts your meetings now but it is also a bond. In time, it is likely she will feel able to be more open.
Meanwhile, find support to heal your own emotional wounds.
Source: (The Sun Newspaper – Deidre Sanders – 20 Jul 2020)
Vocabulary
- strain a state of worry and tension caused by a difficult situation.
Tradução > tensão, estresse, sobrecarga, pressão. - give up on sb to stop hoping that someone will improve and stop trying to help or change them.
Tradução > desistir de alguém. - be taken into care to be sent to a care organization run by the social services.
Tradução > ser acolhida, levada a um abrigo. - cope to do something well in a difficult situation.
Tradução > lidar, enfrentar, suportar, aguentar, dar conta, superar. - social worker someone whose job is to help people who have problems because they are poor, old, have difficulties with their family, etc.
Tradução > assistente social, serviço social. - turned 18 reached a particular age (18).
Tradução > fez 18 anos, completou 18 anos. - make arrangements to organize, plan, or prepare.
Tradução > tomar providências, tomar medidas, fazer acordos - give up to stop doing something that you are trying hard to do.
Tradução > desistir, abrir mão - tread on eggshells to be extremely careful about what you say or do because you do not want to upset or offend someone.
Tradução > pisar em ovos, tomar muito cuidado para não ofender alguém. - keep up to maintain contact or relations with someone.
Tradução > manter, continuar. - go through to experience a difficult or unpleasant situation.
Tradução > passar por, atravessar (um problema) - haunt to cause repeated suffering or anxiety.
Tradução > assombrar, perseguir, atormentar - bond a close connection joining two or more people.
Tradução > vínculo, ligação, laço, elo - in time eventually, with the passing of time.
Tradução > com o tempo, na hora certa, no devido tempo, com o passar do tempo. - meanwhile at or during the same time.
Tradução > enquanto isto, nesse meio tempo - wound a feeling of sadness, anger, etc, that is caused by something bad.
Tradução > ferida, ferimento.
Amadeu Carvalho 