Reckless 1995

Relentlessly cheerful and hopelessly optimistic Rachel’s seemingly perfect life is upended on a Christmas Eve when her husband Tom reveals that he has taken out a contract on her life but is having second thoughts about the decision. Wearing only a nightgown and slippers, she hastily leaves her Connecticut home in a blizzard to escape the fate he planned for her. She is rescued by Springfield, Massachusetts social worker Lloyd, who brings her home to his deaf, mute, paraplegic wife Pooty. [Rachel] moves in with the couple and begins working with Lloyd at Hands Across the Sea, a charitable organization dedicated to helping the disabled.

Eventually [Rachel] discovers both Lloyd and Pooty harbor secrets, his about a family he destroyed and abandoned, hers concerning a deception that has guaranteed her a life of ease and comfort. The trio’s tranquil existence dissolves the following Christmas, and [Rachel] and Lloyd find themselves on a cross-country odyssey that takes them through numerous towns named Springfield, dogged by disaster. Lloyd’s kindly facade shatters, and [Rachel] encounters a number of odd characters, including a less-than-helpful [therapist] and [Tim Timko], the host of a television game show. Finally, having lost the power of speech, she finds herself in a homeless shelter run by [Sister Margaret], who has her own share of dark secrets.

Several years later she has a job as a therapist. Her son comes to her asking for sleeping pills due to it being Christmas. He mentions how she looks like his mom, but she denies it. She gives him talk therapy instead of the annual pills.