Gamechanger

I got back from Oklahoma on Tuesday afternoon. Being the mom of 2 kids, this is prime time activity season. I came back and hit the ground running. No rest for the weary. Sunday evening as I was getting my kids ready for the next week at school, the phone rang. It was my aunt’s brother. My uncle was just arrested. They said that he was on a rage (better known as a bi-polar manic state) and he attempted to hit his mother-in-law. And he was yelling. Loudly. She hit the panic button on the Life Alert necklace. The police came and took him to jail. This is not what I needed to hear. Now what do I do? He is 900+ miles away from me. This is clearly territory I have never ventured across. Being that it was late on Sunday night, no one was answering the phone at the police station. My dad and I resigned ourselves to wait until Monday morning.

O God, who has so faithfully cared for me in the past, and so often seen me through to safety: Grant me that in moments of depression, desolation, failure and despair,
I may look back in gratitude. . . .

Monday morning I began making lots and lots of phone calls. No one would give answers. A good friend in Oklahoma is a priest. She had visited my aunt and uncle several times over the past few weeks. Even she was making phone calls. Prayer was the only thing I could do. I asked God to give me guidance as to what to do. I asked for Him to point me in the right direction. Later that afternoon, I got a phone call from another priest in the area. She knew a defense attorney that was willing to take the case. And most importantly – he knew a bail bondsman willing to take out of state signatures. It wasn’t cheap, but my dad made it happen. We had to get my uncle out of jail. As with the legal system, however, nothing is fast.

More phone calls. Now I have to figure out how to get him home from jail. My aunt is still in rehab. Her brother is clearly not in a helpful mood. All the friends I knew of disappeared. All but one – and we shall call him my guardian angel.

And of course, while he was in jail, we can’t communicate with him. I need to figure out how to get a phone number to him. I had to figure out how to get his bi-polar medicines to him. Deep breaths. More prayer. All of a sudden, I decided to call my uncle’s church. I have no idea what made me do that. At the same time I called his church, a retired prison chaplain walked in the church door. He gave me a number to have my friend the priest to call. They were able to give my uncle the phone number for him to use when he was let out of jail. After 6 days of being in jail, they released him at 3:00 in the morning. Yup. 3 AM. My uncle called my guardian angel at 3 AM. And then they called me. I can’t tell you how relieved I was.

But this was the beginning of the legal battles. My aunt is not happy my uncle is out of jail. In fact, she really yelled at me, “Why did you LET him get out of jail? He needed to STAY in there.”

Clearly, there is a bit more anger between my aunt and uncle than I realized. My uncle and my guardian angel went to the bank and withdrew half of what was in savings and half of what was in checking. He opened up his own banking accounts. My uncle is mad. And there is no going back.

So now my uncle is back at home. My cousin (his son) came for the weekend to make sure everything was OK. But now he is home by himself trying to figure out the future. We are at a crossroads.