May 2 07

May 2, 2007

Where to start today? At 6:45 this morning President Buttars called and said Myrna had the baby last night but he was stillborn. Later we called the hospital and Myrna’s daughter-in-law, Holly, said the baby took one breath and then died. We’re glad it’s over for Myrna and hope she’s doing OK. When we called about 9:00 President Buttars was there giving her a blessing. He deserves credit for being willing to go over and visit her. We know how busy he is and appreciate his showing interest in her. We didn’t talk to her because he was there. We’ve tried to call 4 times today and couldn’t get her. Either the hospital puts us on hold or they ring her room and no one answers.

A few minutes later Kit called and said he needed a ride to the clinic. So Robert went and picked him up, and of course had to run a few errands with him, and dropped him off at the clinic. While he was gone Maxine Bonito called and said she’d borrowed her aunt’s car (the truck is still being repaired) and ran out of gas. Robert came back as we were talking and went and picked her up and took her to the gas station. She had $5.00 to get gas, so Robert gave her another $5. Even that won’t take her far.

In between these calls we cleaned the house, and then at 1:00 went to the school to pick up students for piano. I said I wouldn’t pick them up…if they want lessons they’ll have to figure out how to get here. But Sunday they begged and I gave in. Guess how many we picked up. Yup…our favorite number…zero. That’s it…no more picking up at the school. If they’re motivated they’ll get here on their own. Alma called earlier and said she wanted to come, so we left the school and picked her up. When we got back here Amber Tessay came. So those were the only 2 piano lessons I gave. Alma brought her sister, Xena, with her, so Amber went with me to run those 2 girls home then came back for her lesson.

When we finished we went to the truck and I started inside to get my keys. Just then Robert stepped out on the porch and said you need to come in here quick. Harrilyn Truax was inside and had been beaten up again by her boyfriend, Isaac, but this time was much worse than the other 2 times she’s come by. She had blood all over her. Her mouth was swollen and was still bleeding. She reeked of alcohol and admitted she’d been drinking. We tried to take her to the clinic but she was too dizzy and we couldn’t even get her down the stairs. So we called 911.

She very much didn’t want the EMT’s to come, and I literally stood in front of her so she couldn’t get away. When the ambulance arrived I stepped aside and she ran back behind the church. They went after her and somehow talked her into the ambulance. Before they came she kept telling me, “I’m all right now. I’ll just hitchhike to my sister’s in Whiteriver.” Right! She also said she bled a lot and there was blood all over the house.

The police arrived just as the ambulance was leaving. They followed the ambulance, to the clinic we assume, and later we saw them drive up to Isaac’s house. We only regret that we never heard a gunshot, so the sleaze bucket must still be alive. We don’t know if they managed to arrest him or not, but we heard several foul words shouted at the officers. What a difficult job they have out here.

All this time Amber sort of hid out in the trailer. She really didn’t seem very upset by all the drama. She just said those Lee boys are bad and her mother told her to stay far away from them. Excellent advice.

When Alma came for her lesson she asked if I could drive her sister and her around to deliver invitations to a confirmation at the Miracle Church in San Carlos. When things calmed down around 4:00 I decided I could do this, so went and picked them up again. It didn’t take them long, and I’m glad I went, because it would have been impossible for them to walk all over town. Of course we had to stop at the store on the way home, but they were fast.

Then we took a bag of Veda’s baby clothes to Josephine and Robert delivered some pictures we had developed to Cheryl and Bonitos. While delivering the pictures Jared called Robert and said he needed to talk to him right away because something really bad had happened. When Robert got to their house he found Jared outside, sitting with his head in his hands. Turns out he was worried about a girl at school who told her friends that Jared had “been with her.” Robert asked if that meant she was saying they had done “naughty” things and Jared said yes. Robert just talked to him for a while and helped him calm down and counseled him to talk to the girl and tell her to quit telling these things about him. Jared said he was just trying to be nice to the girl because the other kids make fun of her. Guess nice guys really do finish last.

We spent the rest of the evening trying to get ready to go tomorrow. I did make one batch of banana bread because I had 3 bananas left and couldn’t stand to waste them. We’re excited to head home tomorrow.