Today we continue to look at life on the mountain. Daddy and Charley pass away, and Ann finds love.
THE GOD GAMES: Heaven & Hell...Chapter 30...HELL
At one time or another, most of the children came to live on the mountain with us while they were having trouble keeping their own homes together. We were just grateful that we had a place for them to live. Everyone worked hard when they came to the mountains and so it would not take the children long to get on their feet and find new apartments and new lives back down in the city.
Debby never came up to the mountains, with the exception of a few short visits; she always managed to stay in one place for years at a time. Becky and Skeeta spent several months with us but would usually end up going back to New Jersey to live with Skeeta's parents. Charlie spent one long stretch with us when he was a young man, but he soon moved back to Iowa where he met Lynette and had two children, and he has stayed there ever since he went back. David returned back home to the mountain for his last two years of high school and then after graduation he found a place to live in downtown San Diego. In 1995, David moved to New Jersey shortly after Becky had returned there. Jared joined the Navy Sea Bees after graduating from high school and never returned to the mountain to live. Belinda and Jim and at times, Alana and Helena, lived in the mountains with us for extended periods of time. Kelly and Thomas never lived on the mountain. Janice never returned to the mountain after she left, and didn't finish high school. She met Carl and had Justin and Sara, and they made a good life for themselves. Brian lived with us most of the time on and off, all the years we lived on the mountain. He graduated high school in 1993.
In my personal life I was a wreck. My weight crept up to 335 pounds, and I had to have a total hysterectomy, and a gall bladder removal. Then in 1996 I was diagnosed with Diabetes II. I put myself on a very strict diet and the weight began to come off. I walked all about in the mountains for exercise and I did the hardest work I could find. I helped Bruce dig at the mine and shoveled rock, and I did the laundry in a big wash tub with a scrub board. In the winter time my hands froze while I washed and rinsed the clothes, and in the summer time the sun beat down unmercifully. There was no job that I hated more. As time passed, it became harder and harder to keep up with all the hard work at the mine. We had so many children, and at any one time at least two or three of the children would be having serious troubles with life. We worried about the safety of some of the grandchildren as their parents were involved in drugs and rough life styles. There is little parents/grandparents can do when things are messed up like that except to help out as best we could and try to encourage change in the grown-up children. Of course we might as well have talked into the wind until our children got into their thirties and started listening to other people again. Most of the children regained their feet and went on to better lives, and the grandchildren went through mini-hells, some of them, but they have all managed to come out stronger and better people.
But Brian was no longer a child and, despite the fact that I did not want him to, he kept ending up back at the mountains. I wasn't allowed to go to see my daughters and the grandchildren, but according to Bruce I had to wait on Brian myself, hand and foot, everyday. I began to hate Bruce and began to thrash around to find a way to get off of the mountain and away from him. But my physical shape was such that I could not walk off of the mountain, and I had nowhere to go if I could walk off. I felt frustrated and bitter.
In September of 1991, within two weeks of each other, my daddy and my brother, Charley passed away. Daddy went with a smile on his face. He had been talking to his brothers, who had passed before him, the last few days of his life and he went to sleep one night and didn't wake up. Charley had a tragic ending. He had returned to his friends in the desert around Palm Springs and had got caught up in the drug trade. One evening he got into a fight with someone about drugs and the man had a gun. Charley climbed up a telephone pole to get away from the man, but the man fired the gun and the bullet hit Charley in the chest.
The police were very kind to Debby and me as we were distraught and could not believe that Charley was gone. We had Charley's remains cremated and we took them up to his beloved mountains and sprinkled his ashes over one of the claims that Charley had particularly loved. Now I had only mother left of my original family and she was very happy being a little girl again.
One day in 1998 Bob, who was still one of our partners, gave me one look of tender compassion for the plight I was in and I fell in crush with him. I cannot say exactly what it was, but one day that good, patient man took pity on my plight and my heart was softened toward him. It wasn't that he offered me any hope of salvation from the mountains, but that he just listened to me when I cried. He cared what I felt and he began to bring me sweet, endearing gifts: little dolls and books; the Farmer's Almanac; and cookbooks. I began to think that I was actually worth something again,and I began to get my health back. We began an affair that lasted the last two years that I lived on the mountain. There was nothing flashy that went on, just simple walks down the winding roads and his arms once we were far enough away.
Tomorrow Ann ends her relationship with Bob, is given the wrong medicine by her pharmacy, which nearly killed her, is hospitalized and meets Ed...
THE GOD GAMES: Heaven & Hell...Chapter 30...HELL
At one time or another, most of the children came to live on the mountain with us while they were having trouble keeping their own homes together. We were just grateful that we had a place for them to live. Everyone worked hard when they came to the mountains and so it would not take the children long to get on their feet and find new apartments and new lives back down in the city.
Debby never came up to the mountains, with the exception of a few short visits; she always managed to stay in one place for years at a time. Becky and Skeeta spent several months with us but would usually end up going back to New Jersey to live with Skeeta's parents. Charlie spent one long stretch with us when he was a young man, but he soon moved back to Iowa where he met Lynette and had two children, and he has stayed there ever since he went back. David returned back home to the mountain for his last two years of high school and then after graduation he found a place to live in downtown San Diego. In 1995, David moved to New Jersey shortly after Becky had returned there. Jared joined the Navy Sea Bees after graduating from high school and never returned to the mountain to live. Belinda and Jim and at times, Alana and Helena, lived in the mountains with us for extended periods of time. Kelly and Thomas never lived on the mountain. Janice never returned to the mountain after she left, and didn't finish high school. She met Carl and had Justin and Sara, and they made a good life for themselves. Brian lived with us most of the time on and off, all the years we lived on the mountain. He graduated high school in 1993.
In my personal life I was a wreck. My weight crept up to 335 pounds, and I had to have a total hysterectomy, and a gall bladder removal. Then in 1996 I was diagnosed with Diabetes II. I put myself on a very strict diet and the weight began to come off. I walked all about in the mountains for exercise and I did the hardest work I could find. I helped Bruce dig at the mine and shoveled rock, and I did the laundry in a big wash tub with a scrub board. In the winter time my hands froze while I washed and rinsed the clothes, and in the summer time the sun beat down unmercifully. There was no job that I hated more. As time passed, it became harder and harder to keep up with all the hard work at the mine. We had so many children, and at any one time at least two or three of the children would be having serious troubles with life. We worried about the safety of some of the grandchildren as their parents were involved in drugs and rough life styles. There is little parents/grandparents can do when things are messed up like that except to help out as best we could and try to encourage change in the grown-up children. Of course we might as well have talked into the wind until our children got into their thirties and started listening to other people again. Most of the children regained their feet and went on to better lives, and the grandchildren went through mini-hells, some of them, but they have all managed to come out stronger and better people.
But Brian was no longer a child and, despite the fact that I did not want him to, he kept ending up back at the mountains. I wasn't allowed to go to see my daughters and the grandchildren, but according to Bruce I had to wait on Brian myself, hand and foot, everyday. I began to hate Bruce and began to thrash around to find a way to get off of the mountain and away from him. But my physical shape was such that I could not walk off of the mountain, and I had nowhere to go if I could walk off. I felt frustrated and bitter.
In September of 1991, within two weeks of each other, my daddy and my brother, Charley passed away. Daddy went with a smile on his face. He had been talking to his brothers, who had passed before him, the last few days of his life and he went to sleep one night and didn't wake up. Charley had a tragic ending. He had returned to his friends in the desert around Palm Springs and had got caught up in the drug trade. One evening he got into a fight with someone about drugs and the man had a gun. Charley climbed up a telephone pole to get away from the man, but the man fired the gun and the bullet hit Charley in the chest.
The police were very kind to Debby and me as we were distraught and could not believe that Charley was gone. We had Charley's remains cremated and we took them up to his beloved mountains and sprinkled his ashes over one of the claims that Charley had particularly loved. Now I had only mother left of my original family and she was very happy being a little girl again.
One day in 1998 Bob, who was still one of our partners, gave me one look of tender compassion for the plight I was in and I fell in crush with him. I cannot say exactly what it was, but one day that good, patient man took pity on my plight and my heart was softened toward him. It wasn't that he offered me any hope of salvation from the mountains, but that he just listened to me when I cried. He cared what I felt and he began to bring me sweet, endearing gifts: little dolls and books; the Farmer's Almanac; and cookbooks. I began to think that I was actually worth something again,and I began to get my health back. We began an affair that lasted the last two years that I lived on the mountain. There was nothing flashy that went on, just simple walks down the winding roads and his arms once we were far enough away.
Tomorrow Ann ends her relationship with Bob, is given the wrong medicine by her pharmacy, which nearly killed her, is hospitalized and meets Ed...
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