Saturday, December 1, 2007
I can’t believe that it’s already December. By now, I have usually sent off a package to Bent. I felt bad that I didn’t have the time or money to mail him his yearly package. I thought I should at least send him a Christmas Card.
Monday, December 17, 2007
Sarah called to ask if she could come back and live with us. I told her she was welcome to come back anytime she wanted to. Then she wanted to know if she could bring her boyfriend and their two dogs. I told her she could bring her poodle, but not the Doberman or her boyfriend. She got mad and told me she wasn’t coming home to spend Christmas with us.
Monday, December 24, 2007
We were invited to spend Christmas with Beth and her family. Since Sander is living with our mom, Sander, our mom, and Arnie weren’t invited. Jared and his wife came too. We had a nice Christmas together.
With everything I’ve got going on, it’s been hard to balance it all. It is the first year I haven’t sent out Christmas cards. I just didn’t have the time.
Laila is finally doing better and was out of bed for the first time in 4 months. She is getting stronger every day.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Bent called to ask why I hadn’t written or called him. I told him we didn’t have long-distance on our home phone, and I was putting in a lot of overtime at work. On top of that, I was still homeschooling, and I wasn’t getting enough sleep.
Bent didn’t seem to hear a word I had said. The only thing he was concerned about was that I had not sent my yearly Christmas present or Christmas card.
I got upset and wanted to tell him the only reason I had sent him letters and presents for his birthday and Christmas was because I felt sorry for him. I also wanted to tell him that I owed him nothing because of the way he had treated me growing up. I even thought about telling him I didn’t want anything to do with him anymore.
Bent sounded depressed, so I didn’t want to add to his sorrows. Instead of telling him how I felt, I apologized and told him I would do better in the future. I remained polite, and we talked for a while about everyday things.
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Bree had me do more and more of her job so that she wouldn’t have to do anything. I am getting a lot of overtime and have learned a lot.
The dietitian quit a few months ago. Instead of hiring a new one, Bree had been posing as the dietitian.
Since she was gone so much, she ordered a white lab coat for me and had my name embroidered on it. Under my name, it says “Dietitian.”
I told her that I didn’t mind helping out, but I didn’t think it was wise to have me pose as the hospital’s dietitian. If any of the patients found out, it was a lawsuit waiting to happen.
She told me it would be fine because it was not that hard. After that, whenever one of the patients needed to speak with the dietitian, I would put on my lab coat and grab my pen and paper.
It reminded me of the movie “Catch Me If You Can.” If you just act the part, no one will know the difference. It was kind of fun going to talk to the patients. I found that some of the older people who requested to talk to me were just lonely.
Patients told me about their diet restrictions, and I would write down everything they said. If I were in doubt about what to feed them, I would just go online and research it.
Since Bree was always gone and I had to do her job, it was getting harder and harder to find time for everything she expected of me. I then talked to her about hiring more people.
I was originally hired to work from 5:30 – 2:00 pm. After talking to Bree about my concerns, she told me that she wanted me to work the night shift.
It didn’t matter what hours I worked as long as I got things done. Bree likes to exercise her powers. I let her know I would quit if she made me work the night shift. She started to become more and more verbally abusive toward me.
I went and talked to HR about it. It seemed to me that as long as things got done, they didn’t care what was happening in the kitchen. I don’t understand what is going on.
I was good friends with the hospital’s manager’s wife. I told her about what was going on. She told me it was well known that Bree would get verbally abusive towards some of the employees. I asked, ‘If it was a well-known fact, why had nothing been done about it?” She told me it was because Bree was of African American descent, so she would use what’s called the Black card. I asked her what that meant. She explained to me that it was something commonly used. A company could get sued if it let a person of color go, even if they weren’t doing their job.
One of my coworkers then told me that Bree had been a manager in other departments. When she misused her powers, the employees would complain about her. Then Bree would get a warning and be transferred to a different department. The reason she didn’t get transferred from the kitchen was that there were no more departments left.
I thought this just can’t be right! I started to document when Bree was verbally abusive towards any of the kitchen staff, including myself.
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
I didn’t stay up to celebrate New Year’s Eve because I had to go to work early the next morning.
Sander called me in the middle of the night. Richard let him know I wasn’t available to talk because I had to get up for work in a few hours. I was frustrated that his call had woken me up. I used to take the phone off the hook at night because that’s when Sander likes to call me.
Ever since Sarah moved out, I have kept the phone nearby just in case Sarah needs to get a hold of me. Sarah will be 20 this year, but I still worry about her.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Kevin just called to tell me that Bent was dead. I was shocked. I asked how he died.
Kevin said Bent’s friend Kjeld had gone to Bent’s house this morning to take Bent to the doctor because he was depressed. When Kjeld got there, no one answered the door, so he let himself in.
Once Kjeld was inside, he called for Bent. Since Bent didn’t answer, Kjeld called Beth to see if she might know where her dad was. Beth told Kjeld to check the attic. Kjeld said that Bent couldn’t have gone to the attic because he had bad knees. Beth told Kjeld to go check the attic anyway.
While Beth was waiting for Kjeld to get back on the phone, she could hear Kjeld call, “Bent, Bent are you up here? ……… OH NO… OH NO NO NO NO!”
There were a few seconds of silence. Kjeld then came back to tell Beth he had found him. It had been a gruesome sight because Bent had shot himself in the head.
I asked Kevin if I could talk to Beth. He said no because she was too upset, but she would call me when she felt better. Then Kevin added, please don’t tell Sander about Bent’s death. I have let your mom know not to tell him as well.
When I got off the phone, my first thought was that I was grateful that my last words to him were kind. I could have said so many mean things to him, but thankfully, I didn’t!
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
I didn’t sleep much last night because of the news about Bent. It has taken me years to work through the abuse that I suffered as a child while we lived in Canada. I am surprised that I am taking his death so hard! I’m wondering if I am hurting over what could have been, what should have been.
Beth and Kevin were on their way to Canada. Beth is pregnant. She is 24 weeks along. This ordeal has been hard on her. I sure hope she doesn’t have a miscarriage.
Mom didn’t waste any time calling Sander to tell him that Bent was dead. Sander called Beth on her cell phone to tell her that she better not go to Canada to take care of things because everything was HIS now.
Kevin got on the phone to talk to Sander. That made Sander angry. Sander threatened to kill Kevin.
Beth got so upset that she went into labor. Kevin and Beth had to find a hospital on the way to Canada. At the hospital, they were able to stop her from having the baby.
I am so upset that Mom called Sander. She should have known how he would react to this news.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Sander called me. He sounded thrilled. He said, “Can you believe it! Bent is dead! Isn’t it exciting! Can you believe it!” Sander seemed surprised that I didn’t find pleasure in Bent being dead. Then Sander said, “Bent’s money and Bent’s house are mine! It was Bent’s wish that I get it all!” I told Sander we would have to wait to see what the will said.
I let Sander know that right now, I wasn’t concerned about that. My main concern was for Beth. Sander got aggressive and assured me that all the money was his and his alone! I couldn’t believe this was his only concern, so I said, “Have it! Have it all! It’s all yours!”
Sander got excited and asked, “Really? Everything is mine?” I said, “Yes, have it all!” I told Sander, “Beth was expecting a baby, and, ever since her dad killed himself, it’s been hard on her, and you haven’t made it any easier for her!”
Sander didn’t seem to care. He just wanted to make sure that I understood that I was getting nothing and that everything was his.
I called Beth to see how she was doing. I could hardly understand a word that she was saying because she was crying so hard.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Beth and Kevin were back from Canada. Beth called to tell me that Sander had called her every day to threaten her and her husband. He had also told them that he was on his way to Canada to take care of things.
Sander doesn’t have a passport, and his papers here in the States aren’t in order. Sander was a wanted man in Canada, so there was no way he could have gotten across the border.
I feel bad for Beth. It’s hard enough that she had to deal with her dad’s death; now she has to deal with Sander as well. Beth and Kevin are worried that Sander will show up at their house and do something to them.
Leave a Reply