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The love between a parent and child is not something that can be stolen, severed or extinguished.

When Lizzie turned eighteen, they took her. They didn’t have to drag her away. They got inside her head. They isolated her, made her doubt herself, made her doubt us, her family, the people who have loved her since she was a helpless baby. They made her forget us. They made her forget herself. We experienced the slow, deliberate unravelling of all the threads that bound Lizzie to her family, her history, her identity. They worked to sever every connection she had to us, her parents – to our shared memories, to our laughter, to the quiet understanding that only grows from years of unconditional love.

On the surface, they have succeeded. Lizzie is gone from our lives. She does not – cannot – reach out. We hear no word from her; we see no trace of her bright smile or hear her voice animated with joy. The silence is a heavy, aching thing.

But here is what they do not understand, what they cannot understand: our bond with Lizzie is a living thing; it is two-way. Love is not simply received; it is given, constantly, invisibly, irrevocably. It does not need permission. It does not wither simply because it is ignored or denied.

They can poison her mind against us – maybe for a time, maybe even for a long time – but they cannot kill the love we have for her.

They believe that by cutting Lizzie away from us, they have severed the bond itself. But they are wrong. They cannot extinguish it. That bond was forged before she even had words. It’s made of memories and hopes and something far deeper than anything they can understand.

Lizzie, do you hear us? Do you remember?

One day, maybe when the world around her has fallen silent and the noise they’ve filled her with is gone, maybe then – maybe – she’ll hear it again: the love that never stopped. The voice that never gave up calling her name.

Until then, we wait.

We ache.

We love her with everything we are.

And we do not let go.

Not now.

Not ever.

The full Lizzie Gladwell Crisis podcast is available here.