Before we watched in horror the CP24 interview with Rob Ford’s mother and sister on Thursday, we thought we were witnessing the public suicide attempt of Toronto’s mayor.

Now we know it’s more like fratricide. The entire Ford clan is culpable in the destruction of the city’s chief magistrate.

This week’s front page of The Grid declared the mayor’s brother, Councillor Doug Ford, the “worst brother ever.” Now we know Doug is not acting alone.

Professionals can’t talk the mayor down from the ledge; and, excruciatingly, there doesn’t seem to be a loved one anywhere who wants to.

It’s difficult to view, with detachment, the crumbling of a human being in living colour. It’s impossible to do so when he is your mayor. It’s exhausting to watch it happen with the assistance of family.

How else to interpret the words of the two women of the family — “Rob, you’ve got to smarten up a little bit” — than conclude: Enablers. In denial. The mayor needs brain surgery, not a facelift.

I knew the day would come, much the way it has this week — a slow bleeding away of humanity, drip by agonizing drip. And now that it has, there is a dull numbness and just what I feared: empathy bordering on sympathy and compassion.

But then the interview — the mind-blowing denial, denial, denial — “Everything will fall into place, I know it will,” mother Diane Ford told interviewer Stephen LeDrew. And disbelief replaces compassion.

After downplaying the mayor’s issues — he’s not an alcoholic, just a binge drinker; and certainly not a drug addict because sister Kathy has been down that road and knows how to recognize one — the women revealed that mommy did give the mayor a five-point plan to a future where he won’t embarrass the family anymore.

Tellingly, they felt the top priority was the mayor’s weight.

The plan? Get a driver, address your weight, get an alcohol detector in your car (an admission that the mayor drives after he drinks), watch the company you keep, and see a counsellor.

But rehab — the very path most observers think is the absolute first step towards the mayor’s repairment and ultimate redemption? No. He can’t do that. That would mean leaving city hall for a few weeks. The lack of activity would kill him, the women claim.

Mayor Ford does maybe need some counselling, mother Diane concedes, but not time off.

The mayor will not resign; the family doesn’t want him to.

And, by the way, that part-time driver, Alexander “Sandro” Lisi, who’s been convicted of threatening women and is now charged with drug dealing and extortion, the guy the mayor’s staff feared was providing drugs for the mayor, the one police recorded numerous times slipping packages to the mayor in dark corners and parks? The mayor’s sister says he’s an all-right guy.

The women seem more concerned about the mayor’s political enemies and the media than Lisi. With family like this, who needs political enemies?

Mayor Ford admits to being drunk, hammered, numerous times, in public, at the office. He lied, then admitted to smoking crack (after police recovered the video appearing to show him doing so), and excuses this by saying he was probably in one of his drunken stupors. He asks for forgiveness and claims he has “nothing left to hide,” before appearing before city hall reporters again Thursday to apologize for another video — this one showing him in an expletive-laden rant that betrayed someone high on something.

And we expect more.

Throughout the week, addiction experts have said the mayor displays classic symptoms of addiction and needs an intervention before he kills himself.

Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, a Ford family friend, almost broke down on camera, talking about the mayor. He said the family was working it out, helping the mayor.

You could feel a shift in the city’s emotions. Certainly, help is on the way. Today, we fix Rob Ford the man; there’ll be plenty of time to judge Rob Ford the politician.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

And then the mayor’s mom speaks and hearts sink.

Mommy just wants the city to love her mayor son. The problem is, she doesn’t love him enough to make him lovable.