My Flesh & Blood

Documentary: My Flesh and Blood. I watched this film a few weeks ago. It chronicles a year in the life of Susan Tom and her mostly adopted children who have various degrees of disabilities. Do watch it but have plenty of Kleenex available. It’s not a wonderful life or year. I thought it was good that Susan didn’t pretend to be the perfect mom and we saw her and the kids trying to deal with many difficult things and not always well. Other reviewers have mentioned how ambivalent she seemed towards Margaret’s dilemma but I read an interview where she stated they had been discussing it for eight hours before what is shown. And I felt the problem/decision was largely Margaret’s. She was torn between wanting her own life and independence and wanting to stay and help this family she loved. Especially heartbreaking was Anthony, a twenty year old who appears twelve and suffers from a horribly painful collagen deficiency so his skin literally disintegrates when touched. And it was sad to see Xenia stood up at the dance. Writing about Joe’s plight and fate will make me have to grab the Kleenex again.