Book 17: Do you think Reine-Marie made the right decision?

Definitely agree with her decision; one that she was helped to make by Haniya Daoud and would have been encouraged to make by Ruth, two women who deeply and personally know what it means to live with regrets. One can never truly “unsay” something once said and healing is neither assured nor straightforward. Reine-Marie struggled with a sense of obligation to explain what she learned; this was not a cut and dried decision. In her final meeting with the Horton children, she and Haniya give them an opportunity to reminisce about their mother and how she showed her love for them rather than knowledge of her torment, something they could do nothing about. They have her belongings if they choose to look further.

I do agree with Reine-Marie’s decision to not tell the Horton family what she has discovered about their mom. They need time to process and grieve their loss. We accept trauma in stages and I think the horror of what their mom went through will overload them emotionally right now.

Enid Horton from Three Pines and Abigail Robinson’s mothers’ lives were destroyed by the sleep deprivation/mind control experiments of Dr. Cameron. Dr. Cameron’s experiments were illegal and unethical and they may still be used today in places like Guantánamo Bay. Abigail’s mother committed suicide.
Reine Marie unearthed papers in Enid’s belongings which contained the drawings of at least 100 monkeys. Enid constantly heard the screams of monkeys when she was under torture and it tortured her. She began drawing them obsessively to free them from their pain. Reine-Marie’s decision not to share what she found out about Enid was a compassionate one. It would have caused them pain, if they had found out that their mother was tortured. It may have made Reine Marie feel better to tell them the truth but she was looking out for their feelings, not hers.
Lyall Watson’s most famous social anthropology contribution to paranormal debate was the “hundredth monkey theory,” proposed in his 1979 book “Lifetide: A Biology of the Unconscious” and enthusiastically embraced by New Age thinkers. His book might have inspired Louise to add the “hundredth monkey theory.” He connects the monkeys when an idea explodes – when the 99th monkey sees what the hundredth monkey is doing and copies that. Adding one more monkey creates a critical mass, and the practice spread not only throughout the monkey tribe but also to colonies on other islands. The hundredth monkey picked up a sweet potato and imitated the others by washing off the sand and found that it tasted better. This is one aspect of the madness of crowds.

I think the key to making this the right decision is that Reine Marie gave them all the materials to find the answer themselves, should they ever want to solve the monkey mystery; in which case they might even reach out to her in the future, should this become a burning question for them. If it were me, and I had serious questions about my parents’ behavior and wondered what was behind it, I would want that information, and wouldn’t necessarily appreciate someone deciding for me what I did and didn’t need to know. Enid apparently didn’t want them to know; and yet she never destroyed the monkeys, so she left them that clue, whether consciously or not. If she had been a mother with erratic behavior it may have caused some scars along the way, and the children may have done better with some clarity as to what was behind it. In this case, though, the children seem oblivious to anything amiss with their mother. They feel she was a good mom who loved them, and they are happy enough just knowing that. In this case, why cause further harm by telling them what had been uncovered? Reine Marie gives them a choice, and a chance, to explore further on their own should they ever feel the need to, but meanwhile, they are free to process their grief without adding more to it.