More Rain for the New Year

This has been a good year and a very hard, difficult year for my family. I was able to purchase a small house on the outskirts of Houston and moved myself in with the help of my father and mother. It was so very nice to have my own place. It is hard living with parents, especially when you are my age. I was visited by my beautiful and talented sister who helped me build a kitchen table that I still think is absolutely wonderful. But there, the story takes a very sad turn.

I have already written about how my niece fell asleep at the wheel of her vehicle and the car was struck by a train killing two of her three children leaving her with a lacerated liver and her only surviving child with a broken neck.

My middle daughter decided to leave her husband. She divorced him leaving the poor boy with Frank, until he graduates from college. Since he was born and raised in Montana, Texas is like a foreign country with peculiar habits and especially downright hostle weather.

As a family, we felt that Matt was a wonderful addition to our home, and we have opened up our hearts to him. He has an excellent moral and ethical charm about him. He is also a very hard worker, who follows directions and only gets angry with what he sees as incompetence in leadership or professors. He will be going back up to Montana for graduate school in May and I will miss him immensely.

But before my daughter decided to destroy her marriage, she announced that she had ovarian cancer. She had her ovary removed and what amounted to a half-gallon sized growth in the first stages of cancer. I was horrified, and still am. But, when her husband tried to see her to comfort her, she shunned both Matt and Frank. Frank stated that he felt like a second cousin looking for a handout rather than her step-father, who loved and cared for her during her growing up years.

My family have also been distressed by her actions. There was no willingness on her part to even try to work out the problems.

But the final disaster for this year came from my brother, who lost a good job because the company decided to outsource his computer skills. He had just returned from a visit to my parents here in Texas with his children. He and his wife were estranged and living in separate states. Jon flew to California with the kids but his wife never showed up at the airport to pick them up. He called and she told him that she didn't have a car so he would have to take the kids to Idaho with him. Jon bought tickets, and proceeded to get the kids into school. Several months later, the police showed up at his door with an arrest warrant for kidnapping. Thank goodness the kids werre there and explained what had happened. The police didn't arrest him, but told him that he had to work this out with his wife before she did it again.

Jon flew down to California and had her sign an affidavit stating that she relinquished custody of the kids to him. Later she changed her mind and wanted them back.

Jon flew down again to ask for permission to relocate the kids to Texas as he had a job offer here and could provide for them. His wife asked that the kids be returned to her. The judge decided to leave the kids with Jon until after Christmas, when Jon was to come with them so he could speak with them directly about where they were to live. Jon's wife was extremely angry.

On the trip down to Texas, his wife took her life in a motel room in central California. I don't know the particulars at this time, but I am so sad for the kids who loved their mother very much. And my brother is devastated.

As a family, we are all a bit numb from the pain we have endured. Including the murder of a woman from my congregation in East Texas by her husband. She was a delightful woman with five kids. It also appears that there was some child abuse going on in the family.

Not a good year. Maybe the rain can wash away the sins and the pain from a year that seemed more like a trip with a manic depressive than one where we should have learned to love and care for each other more.