Broken Promises

Chapter 19 - Life Normalizes

When you were about four or five, I would go see my parents once a month for about a day. I would get nurses from the agency to cover the shift and then I would leave Saturday am and come back sometime Sunday afternoon. Your grandparents lived about two hours from us. One sister lived about forty five minutes away and the other about nine hours. I did not take you to your grandparents often. One person driving that distance alone allowed for too many possible issues if you had a breathing concern.

For the most part I didn't travel that much. Things could happen too easily. There was one time I went to see my family and within a couple of hours, I had to leave. In my head, I just felt you were not okay, and I needed to get back home. There was nothing wrong with you at the time. It was just some overwhelming anxiety that I had to get back to you. It was hard leaving you with someone else.

We were in a cycle where you learn to be very self-sufficient without having to leave the home except when there was no other choice. I worked in healthcare documentation for probably fifteen years. It was a really good transition into healthcare and business.

The people I worked with were mostly online. Some people think these relationships are not real, but in many cases they are more real than local friendships. I met so many, and we shared so much over the years. I was able to meet many at professional conferences and to this day, we remain close.

We had a neighbor for several years who was just not a good person. We found out that he was abusing his wife and possibly his children. The first time we met them I was driving home and as I was coming out of a curve in front of our house. There was a one-year-old child crawling through the middle of the streets in a sagging, dirty, diaper. I came very close to running him over by accident. His brother of about ten ran into the road and picked him up.

The second time I met them I had gotten out of bed to use the bathroom at about 2 am. I heard the mom outside screaming to somebody that her husband was really drunk. He had beaten her bad and then grabbed the little baby by the leg and threw her into the front seat of the car and drove off drunk. I called 911 immediately and told them what I had heard. It turns out the mom was also on the phone with the police at the same time. The police showed up and eventually found and arrested him. The child was fortunately unharmed. Oddly enough he was back home in about three days. I saw them working in the yard together after that. She had a large sickle in her hand, and he was standing in front of her. All the women I know would have had an "accident" with that sickle against a man who put hands on them and their children. It I was just very hard for me to understand people who couldn't put their children first in a situation like this. He was arrested several times for abuse that I saw and who knows how many times I did not see.

I saw them having a fight one day about her leaving with the car. He was yelling at her to get out, but she had the doors locked. He picked up a pretty good-sized boulder and tried to smash through the front windshield of her car. I was just about to call 911 when she drove away. It is sad that anyone can have a kid. Sometimes it seems that those least deserving of the title of dad are the ones who have the most children.

We had a dog for a few weeks, but we had the same neighbor come over to ask us to remove the dog from their house. Their house was filthy, as in dirt on everything. It smelled rank. It was beyond what I could imagine. The dog ended up in their house twice, and I could not figure out why. The fence was tall and without issues. The gate was locked. I eventually figured out what was happening. The oldest boy would climb the fence and then lift the dog over it to his sister. They would then take him to their house and play with him. I went over and let their mother know what was happening. She assured me that it would not happen again. When I caught it happening a fourth time, we decided to give the dog to one of your nurses. She had several and had wanted one like him. I hated to give him away, but those kids were going to get hurt going over that fence. It was just not worth risking their health.