My Mentally ill niece, wow, that's a story and a half.
I found my niece a few years ago when I briefly worked at the City Transit Company. She was working in the Human Resource Office. She is the oldest daughter to my oldest sister Kathy and her husband Roy. Her name is Susan, and at this time she is about 38, and is raising a little 7 year old boy. We'll just call him De.
Almost 2 years ago her an I began communications back and forth. Susan is the family out caste at this time. As I write you will understand why.
I was trying to establish a bond with her the best way I knew how. She seemed like she was interested and seemed she wanted family in her life, so I allowed myself to be that person.
I had a hard life, and I knew she did, so I wanted to be someone she could relate to and understand her.
All was good for a while, then I got this phone call. It was her telling me Derrick (her husband) just tried to strangle her to death. So I went into survivors mode, and told her I will be there to move her, her son and her little dog in with me. So she got a few friends to help out, and I grabbed a few people, and my sweet cousin Gretchen from Missouri came all the way to Chicago to help out. We filled up a few truckloads, and took them to a storage unit, and then the last one went to my house with them.
One of the helpers she got was a male friend she used to see before she married Derrick. His name was Chuck. Weeks went by and before I knew it Chuck was partially living there too.
Chuck seemed to have been helping Susan a lot, so I allowed him to stay in the house with her.
Over time, I felt things changing but I couldn't put my fingers on it.
In just a few months, she slowly moved her things into Chucks house without telling me of course, that should have been a red flag, but I totally missed that. But, it wasn't the end of this saga.
Only a couple weeks go by after she left, I get a phone call. "Auntie, he has locked me in the house and won't give me a key, and the Landlord wants me out.....Oh, Auntie he is over here threatening me, He picked up my dog and took him outside, and I think he is going to kill him", she went on. I told her she needs to call the police, but then she said "Auntie, he is the police", so then I told her to call and demand to speak to his supervisor.
She followed my advice, the police came, and realized who the offender was, and according to Susan, they seemed to have some sort of grudge against him though they should have arrested him for home invasion, intimidation, and abuse of his authority, I could actually come up with more charges but he wasn't.
So I was off again running to her rescue, but this time it was just me, my 14 year old daughter, her 6 year old son (at the time), and her 28 year old hype best friend Adriane who was 105 pounds soaking wet. I told her that day I wasn't going to do this a third time, so she better make up her mind.
We ended up back at my house, where she decided to stay. Soon after this, I began having problems with my daughter. From drinking to running away from home. She finally ran away and didn't come back.
Months went by, we learned while Chuck was coming around he was stealing from my house. He got 2 bikes that we know of, and a few other things including missing money.
Susan would time to time go on dates, which I thought was normal. She pronounced her mental illness during her stay. She would make sure it was understood that she was.
She began down the trail of getting on disability. I helped her out a little. I was even her payee for a short stint. I didn't want the responsibility, I had a hard enough time trying to handle my disability.
She had altogether about 3 major settlements come in during her time at my house. Mind you at no time did she offer to cover that gas bill so if nothing else her own son had normal heat and cooked food. She didn't care, she went and got space heaters so she could run up my electric instead. I know she didn't create the bill, but I thought the idea was to help out each other, but it was always all about her. She would even tell me she can't worry about anyone else problems, she had enough of her own. To prove a point, when my daughter left home, not one time did she ask me how is she. She only asked where she was. I told her, and after that, she never brought it up again.
She lived in my living room with her son and her little dog. I rarely went in there, it was almost like I lived in a small little corner of the house.
I had no TV, just my computer and my cell phone.
Finally the day came and my youngest son who is also staying here, had enough, and made her so uncomfortable, she finally left. Of course she snuck out no telling anyone. She hasn't yet revealed where she went. She claims she went to a shelter, but I doubt it. Her son told my son she was seeing Derrick again, but she denies it, but I noticed she took all that blond she was so adamant on having, that Derrick hated out of her hair. I am guessing she is back with him, and guess what, I won't be there for another rescue, may God forgive me, but I did it twice. Yes, it will break my heart if he does something to her, but for one thing she will be too far away for me to get her, and secondly, I am just not healthy enough to do it, and I am not putting any more people at risk, especially my own kids. Domestic Violence is serious, and I am not trying to get myself or anyone else hurt. She has a mother and a father and 3 brothers, she can call them.
This is just a brief story about her. Much wasn't mentioned cause it would just go on and on.
So, with that said, I'll move on to the next topic next time.