This week, the Disappearance of Maddie McCann’s disappearance made the headlines again. Eighteen years after the 3-year-old girl turned to Praia Da Luz, Portugal, in 2007, new excavations were carried out on the spot. In the viewfinder of the investigators: the former home of Christian Brückner, the main German suspect, already accused of several rapes. For the time being, there has been no element regarding the results of this research. But in the background of this new twist, Maddie’s family still seems and forever filled with hope.
Eighteen years later, a family still standing
The couple of parents rarely express themselves, except through their association to find Maddie. But it displays, despite the drama, an almost banal facade of life that has not exploded. Kate and Gerry still live in their house in Leicestershire and continue their medical careers. Kate, who had left her post to take care of her children (twins today students), is now engaged in the fight against disappearances.
“”If we are fortunate to have a relatively normal and pleasant life today, this feeling of living in uncertainty remains very disturbing“, However, they wrote in 2024. Can a couple survive such a loss?
Not so simple, according to Johanna Rozenblum, clinical psychologist
“”In the Maddie case, as in the Grégory case (whose parents also pursued their life as a couple), it is true that we see parents who, apparently, have remained united. In truth, we must also take a little bit of distance and precaution with what we see.“”
Few couples resist such chaos
For the expert, couples who extend their love despite traumatic facts are rare. In general, the test creates family chaos that inevitably fits into the couple’s ties. Especially when it comes to the loss of a child, or a brutal disappearance.
“”Over time, even once the test is past, it remains difficult, if not impossible to stay. Because the other, in the end, comes to embody the trials again and again. Unfortunately, this can be a brake to move forward, in the sense that, every morning, we wake up in front of the person with whom we crossed the hardest. And who comes to summon the drama crossed again and again.“”
Sometimes the other becomes the only valid ally
But in some cases, couples remain together because they find in this union a way of dealing with all the difficulties encountered. “”It is not necessarily the proof of a love that lasts, nuances the psychologist, but what welds is this link in the adversity that has been created.“”
In this case, the couple no longer necessarily meet in love, and the partners can see their feelings evolve, but they then make “block” against the rest of the world. Especially when they were also accused, as was the case in the Maddie case.
“”It is this side “with you, I finally protect myself from the rest of the world, the media, from all these people who, perhaps, suspect us, do not understand us, have not listened to us”“.
In these couples, the other then becomes the only “safe place” in a world that has tested them far too much and in which they have found neither the necessary listening nor the comfort. “”This remains a way of staying in an interview that allows you to survive everything you have experienced and crossed“, Analysis our expert. An undoubtedly solid and necessary link to support the different theories, as long as the outcome is not known.