I meant to write about this sooner but I didn’t. I have been so tired, of course. My nephews Ken and Alex, the two oldest, stopped by the night I saw Alex and Brent riding bikes on my way home from work. It was around 9 and our doorbell rang. It was them. I was surprised to see them. They were coming back from a friends house. Alex asked about me being in the hospital. They gave me their new phone numbers–thank goodness their dad got himself and them some phones. I ended up driving the boys and their bikes home. They asked if I wanted to say hi to their dad. TBH, I didn’t, really. I just wanted to get back home, to relax (the previous week was shitty), plus I was in my nightgown. My brother came out to me. I had to listen to 15-20 minutes of his complaining about our parents and his childhood. Granted, he does have some valid complaints but it is over now, it is in the past and there is nothing to do but to move forward. This made me very sad and I cried on the way home. I wanted to write about it either here or in my diary but I didn’t–that emotional stuff and looking back wears me out and it takes a while for me to recover from it.
One of my favorite people to transport died. He had been fighting for a long time. He finally passed but it is still sad. I hadn’t seen him much these past months either. He will be missed. His passing got me thinking about one of my other favorites that passed away last October. I still miss him. I have elephant gel clings hanging on one of my bus windows for him. He liked elephants so I put those up for him, in part to twit him because he had made fun of some other décor I had up. Now I leave the elephants up to honor his memory.
I went up north Saturday and Sunday last weekend. I was hoping to take my mother out for Mothers’ Day but she didn’t want to go out. We had dinner at her house. I really wanted to take her out because she needs to get out of the house but she isn’t up to it. I feel really bad for her and about her circumstances. I feel like she needs to be around people more but she is kind of difficult to deal with. She is doing alright considering–she walks with a walker, and she is in her right mind enough to know her financials but she is obviously mentally ill. It has only gotten worse, not better. She is paranoid and thinks someone is stalking her on the web and through her phone. It seemed like she was getting better for a while there, 2013-2017. She had a steady boyfriend then, though she was not IN love with him. He kept her in touch with reality though, and made her life active and fun. I can’t be there for her, the drive is too much. She has a roommate now…that helps her out with some of her ability to afford to live on her own as well as her ability to get food but he can’t deal with the mental issues. I can probably guess that he finds her difficult to deal with too. It is truly sad. I am sad every time I visit her. It is a visit fraught with guilt and unpleasant emotions. It makes me sad that I feel like that too. It takes me some time to recover from all THAT.
I did see my dad. We stayed with him. It is always so peaceful at his place. He keeps a neat and clean house and of course the property is beautiful. I took some pictures of his flowers. Daddy talked our ears off, haha. He never seemed to talk that much when I was a kid. I am thankful that he seems to be doing well. He keeps himself busy with pickle ball and odd jobs, plus work around his house and on his vehicles. My husband and I will be going back up there in June and July. We have a wedding to go to in June that is near my dad’s place and we have vacation in July. I mean to spend some time at the beach, weather permitting.
My nephew Ken, who is 18, called me yesterday. He needs to get his Social Security card and state ID. His mother took off with the boys’ Social Security cards and never turned them into the foster care agency like she was supposed to. My dad tried to get Ken his Social Security card but it was denied. They want all this documentation. Same with the ID. I told Ken we’d work on it but I had to gather up/request some documents. I mean both Social Security and the Secretary of State have lists of documents they want you to provide but many were impossible for Ken to get because he hasn’t had a job nor has he any bills in his name and the school he attended did not do picture ID. Well, I have been feeling so shitty I couldn’t even really deal with all that.
Ken called me and told me he called the Social Security office in Flint and that we could just go in there–we didn’t need an appointment–with a medical record of his. He talked of going to the urgent care or I got that information from him somehow so a planned started to form. I had some cancellations for the next day and my boss allowed me to come in later so I could take Ken to Social Security. I didn’t have much hope that we would make any progress on getting him his card but I’d thought we’d try it. The kid wants and job and to go to college. First we went to the urgent care to request his medical record. Luckily they did not ask for ID. He almost didn’t even have to sign a release form. We went on to Social Security. Of course, the medical record wasn’t good enough to get him his card. It had to have an official stamp on it or a signature from someone in the medical office–even the receptionist could sign it. UGH!! I had his official birth certificate, official stamp and all, but that wasn’t good enough, don’t ask me why. So back to urgent care we went hoping that we could get an official stamp or signature without too many questions asked. Luckily the receptionist stamped the records for us with the stamp the doc uses for prescriptions (she refused to sign the records herself, rather rudely but she was exasperated so I forgave her–and she didn’t ask questions, she just wanted us out of her hair, ha). Also, someone in the office showed us that the medical records were, in fact, digitally signed by the doctor. We hightailed it back to the Social Security office and they didn’t turn us away. I waited with baited breath while the guy inspected the medical record. He took his time finding the digital signature (the official prescription stamp wasn’t enough??). I had to point it out to him. He accepted it!! Ken will get his Social Security card in 10 to 14 days. One major hurdle cleared! Next we have to work on getting him his ID. We will still need more records. Of course he wants his drivers license. That scares me! He hasn’t had any driver’s training. He thinks he will do alright. HA. Ugh. I just can’t wait till he gets a job and gets his butt back in school. I am happy that I was able to help him get his Social Security card though. Now I will know what to do for the other 2 boys.
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