I missed my 30th reunion.
I am sorry but I did not make my 30th college reunion. [It was supposed to have been from the 31st of May to the 4th of June in Massachusetts.] I had other pressing matters.
The primary problem was that my niece, who was living with us at the time, had to continue going to school until the 1st of June 2007. The school period was extended due to several snow days throughout the school year. There is a long story behind why she was living with us, and why she is not here anymore. Let me elaborate.
My wife has a brother who was adopted into the family when he was a baby. I believe she was already a teenager when he came into the family. Apparently it was a traumatic realization for him when he was told that he was adopted. This plus the fact that it was discovered late in his life that he had dyslexia, gave him very poor self esteem. All of this partially explains why, later in life, he got an illegal alien pregnant and then felt obligated to marry her. Since that day I have felt that I am a victim of America’s loose borders.
I remember thinking that I thought his wife was retarded. Her eyes went in different directions, and when anyone talked to her she acted as if she did not understand. I soon discovered that she had other children that she had abandoned back in Mexico. Originally I thought she had two children in Mexico; I have since discovered she actually had three children and one of them must have been about a month old when she got pregnant again with my brother-in-law’s child. Prior to their marriage she got drunk and was driving reckless in an automobile in their small town in Texas. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) had her deported.
Prior to her giving birth, my brother-in-law paid for a coyote to bring her across the border and then my brother-in-law drove non-stop to our home. (At the time we lived in San Antonio.) My wife and I were surprised to find them at our doorstep. I advised my brother-in-law not to marry this woman. I was already convinced that she was of low moral caliber, and would only give him heart ache. He married her anyway in a local court house and the baby was born about a week later.
They finally left our home when I got angry with her. She simply refused to get up and hold her baby. The baby cried for well over an hour. I could tell that the baby just wanted somebody to hold her. I finally went to their room and picked the baby up. The baby stopped crying immediately. I then told her in Spanish: “See, the baby just wanted somebody to get up and pick her up. You are worthless as a mother!” They left later that same day.
Since that time we have had their children come and live with us at least twice. The mother was developing a reputation in her small Texas town, and she liked hanging around other woman of similar reputation. At the time their daughter was about 6 or 7 years old and she started crying because she wanted to go home. Mom was drunk and was probably making out with another man, and my niece wanted to go home. Mom got angry and slapped her down the stairs from the trailer house. That probably would have been the end of it, except she also made the mistake of slapping the child of one her friends in the house who got scared with all the commotion. That mother’s child called the police. After resisting arrest mom was sent to jail. We drove immediately to Texas to pick up the children. It is about a 12 hour drive and I drove until we arrived around 3 AM. At the time I was also happy because the father was actually talking of divorcing his unfaithful wife. He wanted us to take his daughter because he was worried that Child Protective Services (CPS) would take his daughter away. We took my niece to come and live with us. After about 6 months, my brother-in-law started asking for his daughter back because he had made up with his wife. I told him it was a mistake, but I respected his request.
Since that time, they had another child. A son who is very light skinned. Neither of them is very light skinned, and as you can guess I have heard rumors as to the real father.
This last time we picked up their children in September after there was no one to pick up the children after school. Dad was in another town working on his construction job. Mom was out partying. My wife’s aunt who is deaf and was never taught to use sign language had taken it upon herself to take care of the children. When the school tried to call their home, aunt did not hear the phone. My niece then said that she “wished she was dead.” CPS was called. They felt that my wife’s aunt could not take care of the children and advised my brother to have us come and get the children again. We did.
This time I got to get to know my nephew. He is a cool kid. I have to admit that I am partial to boys because my wife and I had two of them ourselves. I never had a daughter. This boy was a real “guys’s guy”; he liked anything with an engine – the bigger the better. If you gave him a sandwich, he only ate the meat. He loved meat. He also fraternized with all the girls he met. He loved to dance and goof around. He has a great sense of humor.
Well I with school ending on June 1st, my brother-in-law was asking for his children again. So rather than going to my reunion I had to drive to Texas again with my wife and my nephew and niece. I had not realized that the boy had gotten so attached to me. While we were in Texas we had to say good-bye to my nephew three different times, and each time he cried and begged us to take him.
My brother-in-law was not ready to take the children back. He was living with his wife in a small motel room with a twin bed. I asked him to let us keep the boy until they had a place where the boy could play. They turned me down. When we last said good-bye the boy cried and begged to stay with us and he tore my heart out. I had to leave him behind. I can’t tell you how angry I am with my brother-in-law. Those kids do not deserve this.
Needless to say, I wish I had gone to the reunion instead.