Chapter Five - Monique becomes Julie (her mother) (a)

This next episode of Monique's life is most probably the result of her mother telling Monique at a very young age all about her sexual exploits. A mother's attempt to treat her daughter as a girfriend, instead of a child is the resultof absent mothers being constantly told by their children that they are not really their mother, because the children were raised by someone else. In Monique's case it was Mama, her grandmother who raised her. So Julie used this abusive device to become like an older sister who would woo the children closer to her by sharing her private sexual history with them. She compounded this by adding that the girls needed to be toughened up for the real world so they would not get as hurt. She went on to explain to her daughters that men would come and go in their lives but they must always keep the upper hand. She told them to keep men in their lives under the spell of their sexual power. Essentially, she taught them they could get what ever they needed with the power of seduction and sexual rewards.
After Mel, Monique's next candidate presented himself before she even moved out of the house on Billings Road. It was Jason, a nurses aid, who had introduced himself to her one day by remarking to her that he had a dream about her. Monique came home and relayed this information to her husband Mel, who already new it was the beginning of more abuse from her. Jason, though younger than Monique, had already had experience with older women and was great at getting what he wanted. On a day that was months from Monique's birthday, Jason filled a room with balloons and told Monique it was a birthday party to make up for all the birthday's she had missed (Jason knew that Monique's mother hosted birthday parties for the three other sisters but never for Monique).

Chapter Six - Monique becomes Julie (her mother) (b)

With Jason now firmly in her grip, Monique gets a high profile female lawyer to help her keep the children from their father, Mel Dressler. Mel knows that Monique spends little time with the children, and is required to fight to see them by sending dates for visits to be approved to her lawyer. It soon becomed apparant that the lawyer was playing games and delaying notifying Monique of the dates requested by Mel.

Mel is in pain from having been kept from the children he loves so dearly and in the hope of being allowed to see the children more, he writes Monique a letter admitting fault for the failure of the marriage. He meets Monique at the hospital she is working at and gives her the letter. Monique reads the letter and decides to give Mel another chance. She asks Mel if he knows she is with another man. Mel acknowledges this but tells her she is still married and can do what ever she wants to. Mel shows Monique the dates of the faxes from her lawyer and she understands that her lawyer was making things worse intentionally. She tells Mel that she has no time to clean up the town house she has rented with Jason and needs to get her damage deposit back. Mel offers to go and clean up the town house and does so. Monique moves back into the house on Billings Road. It was at this point that Monique explains to Mel that she has a sexual addiction to Jason. She tries to avoid Jason but as they work together she can't.

Chapter Seven - Monique's attempted reconciliation

Monique moved back into the Billings road house to give it another chance with Mel. The children went to stay with Mel's sister, Manuela for a couple of weeks to help them have time alone together. But it was all in vain, Monique had received a STD from Jason and was taking medication for it. Although she tried to stay away from Jason, she was really upset that Mel had spoken to her sisters about their childhood. She told Mel that he knew too much about her now. Monique started to see Jason again although she was living with Mel and sleeping in the same bed with him. She even called weeping on the phone to Mel asking him what he thought she should do as she was driving to visit Jason one night. Mel knew that only a very cold hearted person could behave like this. She would even ask Mel to help her with her hair extentions and root touch-ups and then proceed to drive to her boy friends apartment. Mel had not had much sleep in the preceeding weeks and when he overheard Monique speaking to Jason on the phone about him and how stupid a person would have to be to believe in God, (just months after she had become baptised in the local church) Mel couldn't take it anymore and confronted her about what she was doing. Monique grabbed a pair of siscors and hair spray (although Mel had never raised a finger against her before) and Mel wrestled them from her. Monique consequently moved out again. Mel then went to seek counseling from Arnie Toews once a week.