Officer Todd and
a friend were
able to sneak
my
youngest daughter’s hermit crabs into the hotel room while
we were there.
Todd contacted a
fellow officer that
was
assigned to the search of the property and told them where
to find them. That officer found the hermit crabs and
brought
the tank back
to the station.
The next day T
odd and
his
friend smuggled
them into the Hilton. They walked it past
the front desk using a luggage carrier with towels covering
the ten-gallon tank, then up in the elevator they went. When
they knocked on the door, the room was already filled with
people, from FBI , to police, to victim advocates. The room
barely had standing
room. People had to
make way
as
T odd and his
friend rolled the
precious cargo inside
the
room. G was sitting on the bed and as T odd lifted the towel
off the tank,
the biggest smile
I had seen
in a long
time
spread across her
face. G dubbed Officer
T odd “Royal
Crab Carrier One” and Todd’s
friend “Royal Crab Carrier
Two” right there on the spot.
Officer Beth was able to keep track of our cats and the
neighbor’s dogs for
us, too. The
animal shelter the
cats
were at spayed and neutered them for us and gave them all
their shots. There were six cats rescued from
the property
all together, four
of our new
kittens and two
adult cats,
Patches and Lily, who were
strays that I
fed. Beth asked
what I wanted to do
about the two dogs, and since I never
really felt they were mine, I
asked if she
could find good
homes for them. Which
I later found out she did. Patches
turned out to
have nose cancer
and the animal
shelter
volunteered treatment for him. I was torn at the prospect of
never seeing any of
them again, but I also knew
I had no
home, no money, and
I had no idea what our
future held.
The girls were adamant
they wanted to at least
keep the
kittens. I asked Beth
if she could find foster families for our
cats until we were more settled and she said, “No problem.”
We were reunited
with our kittens
January ’10. Beth
adopted Patches, who has since survived the nose cancer
and who has found his family. Lily was adopted by a friend
of Beth’s and is living a happy carefree life.
My oldest daughter’s parakeet was returned
to her and
she has had
him ever since.
Beth also told
me the
ambulance had come
for Phillip’s mother
and she was
being cared for.
After my initial shock
at being reunited
with my mom,
sister, and aunt,
I began to wonder what happened to my
best friends, Jessie and Shawnee. Jessie had been such a
constant of my early
years that a part of me
never forgot
about her and I
thought of her often. Shawnee
was the last
friend I had, and
I was curious as to how her life was
now. I
enlisted the help of my new friend Todd.
A few weeks after our recovery, T odd asked me if there
were any friends I
would like him to find, and I
said I would
like to find Jessie and Shawnee. He had no trouble finding
Shawnee on
Facebook and soon
told me that
she was
married with a couple
of kids. He said he had
contacted
her on Facebook and left a number for her to call. I guess
she was a
little suspicious of
that because she
had her
lawyer call and check him out first, but when she found out
that he was indeed
a real officer
and was calling on my
behalf, she accepted. T o keep my privacy, Shawnee began
sending letters to Officer T odd in care of the police station
and he would get
the letters to me. The
letters eventually
turned into emails
that he would
forward to me. I
t was
wonderful to reconnect
with her and
hear that she
was
happy with her two
kids and married to a wonderful
guy. I
learned that she
had lost her
grandma Millie, who I
remember living
with in Tahoe, and she had also lost her
mom a few years back.
But she made a wonderful life for
herself and I am so
happy for her. I called her on the phone
for the first time on November 5th, 2009. I invited her to my
daughter’s
birthday; she couldn’t
come down at
that time
because she also had a couple of birthdays to celebrate,
and so we made plans
for her to come down and
visit in
December. When I saw
her for the first time, she looked so
much the same I would
have recognized her anywhere. She
had a huge surprise
for me and my family. Her work
had
pooled together and
brought us things
we desperately
needed.
Christmas came early
for us all. T
odd and
his
family were there, too, and he brought us each a brand-new
bike. I t was
the best Christmas
ever, but it
wasn’t the
presents that made it special; it was being able to see my
mom smile and happy and seeing that my sister turned into
a beautiful woman and knowing my aunt never forgot me.
Knowing I had a
family was the biggest and best gift of all.
T odd also found my childhood friend Jessie. She was a
little more difficult
to find, but he eventually did.
She wrote
me letters and sent me homemade chocolate chip cookies
through T odd and then we started to email. I called her for
the first time on November 5th, too, after I got done talking
with Shawnee. Did
I mention how
nervous I was
to call
either one of them? Even though they had been sending me
letters and seemed to remember me, I was still nervous to
call either one
of them. T odd
assured me that they
both
wanted to talk
to me, but still, what if I
didn’t know what to
say? I still
didn’t feel comfortable
using a phone
without
permission. It’s taking some time to realize I don’t have to
ask permission to
do the
things I want.
I was shaking as I
dialed each of their
numbers. They both turned out to be
very easy to talk to. The call to Jessie lasted an hour and
a
half. She did most of the talking, but I loved to listen to her
talk and tell me
about her life. I
invited her to come up for
G’s birthday and she started crying and said she would be
there.
Jessie drove nine hours
to get to
us and brought
her
seven-year-old daughter and her mom, Linda. As she drove
up the driveway, she was so excited she barely put the car
in park before
she jumped out
and ran to
me and
embraced me in the fiercest hug I had ever had. We were
both crying and
in that moment
I felt an
old connection
reestablish. It’s an odd feeling to know that a certain
person
will always be
there for you,
no matter what. It’s hard
to
describe. My friend
was the old Jessie and
the new
combined. She was
taller than me,
which bugged me
because growing up I
had always been taller than her. She
still had the same long dark brown hair and she was skinny
just like before. She looked so much like her mom. After we
let go of each other, she introduced me to her daughter and
I introduced my two
daughters. My mom and sister were
there, too, and we were
all hugging each
other. Hugging
Linda again was a wonderful feeling, too. Growing up I had
spent a lot of time with her. And hugging her was like going
back in time and smelling the salty sea air where she used
to take us and tasting the sand in our sandwiches as we sat
on the warm
beach in Southern
California. We talked until
the wee hours of the
night. I t felt so natural and easy. The
next day she
helped decorate for G’s
birthday party. We
had invited all our new friends including T odd and his
family
and Beth. I t was
crab themed because my daughter loves
her hermit crabs Kevin, Devin, and Cheese.
কোন মন্তব্য নেই:
একটি মন্তব্য পোস্ট করুন