The September Fifth Mistake

"Honey, I'm home!"

His name was Parker H. I remember dreaming about him when no other dreams came to me in the night. I remember thinking I would never see him again, and that was okay. I remember looking at him and hurting inside. Maybe there was this "spiritual connection" that everyone said that they had with their sole mates; whatever it was, I felt I had known him all my life. 

If anyone could think of the perfect family, it was his. The Holbrook's were odd. They were very antisocial, however their hierarchy status in a small town made them a lot of friends. The death of their oldest daughter was also a factor. Becca was 20 years old when a drunk driver crashed into her. She was on her way home from her mother's house, but as far as Henry and Gail were concerned, she was coming from work.

Henry Holbrook married Gail when his daughter from a marriage before was 8. Becca and Gail were always close, but Becca knew to never trust Gail because of her major cocaine addiction. Gail was 23, Henry was 30. Together, they built was seemed like an empire. Gail was a compliance manager making nearly the wages of an experienced nurse, while Henry was the disaster coordinator for Rockcastle County, making $5,000 less a year than the county judge. 

About 4 years after marriage, Henry and Gail were to expect their first child. Gail knew that if her husband found out about her drugs that he would send her off to some rehabilitation center in Lexington, so she kept it a secret. She did well, too. When her son was born two months earlier than expected, Gail knew that the doctors would find out about her addiction. She called the doctor that she worked for and told him that she had been taking antidepressants and didn't think about how  it would affect the baby. She was off the hook.

I think the craziest thing about this whole story is that when somebody does something bad, it always comes back to them in the worst ways, even if nobody else sees it. 

Gail was the youngest of five siblings and it showed. She got everything she ever wanted, and if you asked her about her married situation with Henry she'd say "Well love doesn't have an age but it does have a price," meaning her mama, Lena, wasn't fond of the man. In 1996, when Henry and Gail first married, Gail had just started her addiction. Henry never knew her without drugs. She told him that she's always had a medical condition and when she was finished with her appointments, she was too sleepy to drive home. Henry started catching on and offered to drive her to Somerset, but she said her mama would take her, and that was enough to scare him out of doing it. 

Henry was from a wealthy family in Rockcastle County. His daddy owned lots of land, almost all of it, in the southern half of the county. They farmed and grew tobacco in the summer times, but in the wintertime,  beef was their income. The beef business was always booming in Southern Kentucky and everyone knew it. If somebody in those parts had beef, they were practically royalty. Henry was the king of Rockcastle. Everyone knew him, but he never really let it go to his head. In his mind, he worked for everything he's ever had and he never needed anyone else. Status. 

 Gail was different. She honestly only cared about herself. She didn't care that her mom and dad did want her to marry a man that was nearly 10 years older than her and immediately go into motherhood along with that. I experienced Gail Holbrook in a negative way. It is honestly a nightmare.