FanStory.com - Family Doors Swing Open Againby BethShelby
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Remembering Yesterday
: Family Doors Swing Open Again by BethShelby

For new readers, who may not have read my author notes, this is written in a conversational way as I talk to my deceased husband. When I refer to someone just as "you" this means I am addressing my husband, Evan.

Changes continued to occur for the younger members of our family. Carol gave notice on her apartment, and her friend, Pam, who was living with her until her new apartment was finished, invited Carol to move into it with her and help with the rent. Pam seemed to have mixed feelings about Carol moving in, because she was still in marriage counseling and hoping things might work out with her husband. If that happened, Carol would have to find another place to live. Carol liked the new apartment and hoped she would be able to stay there. It was at the foot of a mountain, and she told us the area looked like a park. The apartment was over a four-car- garage. It had two bedrooms and two baths and a large great room, dining/kitchen combination. It also had a large deck. 

Carol had been enjoying doing things with her friend, Neil, but now that she had made other friends, she found that most of them considered Neil to be obnoxious. She decided she wanted to back away from him, because she was afraid he was starting to become more serious. She didn’t like being with someone other people made fun of. The group would plan things and not invite him, but he’d get wind of it and show up anyway.

Kimberly was now five months pregnant and quite proud of her baby bump. She had dreamed of being a mother for years. Don was still doing some construction work, while studying to pass his boards. He was also working on building chiropractic tables and turning one room of their new home into a nursery.

You and I had to go over and move everything Connie left in the apartment when she went to camp, back to our house. Thankfully, she left everything in pretty good shape, and most of her loose items were packed in boxes. She was much neater than Christi. The large items were her bed, and an aquarium, with only two tropical fish remaining, and a small table. The TV and lamp were things she had borrowed from us. She also had a parakeet in a cage.

We had barely finished moving Connie's stuff back home, when Christi told us she would have to move back home too. She said she couldn’t afford the rent alone, and she needed us to help her move. She wanted to quit her job and start doing massages full time. We told her she was making our lives miserable bringing strangers in constantly, and we needed her to find another place to work before it became her main job. She promised she would, and said our house was just temporary. She said she was looking for another place to live as well. We were amazed she had kept her receptionist job as long as she had, because she was always in trouble for going in late.

Luckily, Larry, one of the guys she had been doing massages for, liked her and agreed to help her move. You and Larry were able to get a huge sofa bed that Denny had left in her apartment into the bedroom she would be using in our house. It took some of my help as well. After we finally finished getting all of her junk out, I went back with her and spent a couple of days trying to get the apartment back like it was, in order for her to get her deposit back. The sink was piled high with dishes, which must have been there since the first week. The refrigerator and stove were scary. There were stains on the carpet that wouldn't come up, so I doubt after all that work, she got the deposit back.

After a week at camp, we talked to Connie. During the first two weeks, they were only there for training and the actual camp wouldn’t start for another week. Connie had met two guys she really liked. One of them, named Charlie, seemed to really like her. He and the other guy were there to train the rock climbing instructors and would be leaving before camp started.

Connie said she was getting really good at it, but the other guy she would be assisting wasn’t very good. I imagine the two trainers were giving most of their attention to Connie, since she was a cute girl, and the guy wasn’t getting much in the way of instruction. She wasn’t happy her instructors would leave after one more week, but Charlie was already finding ways he could keep seeing her. She said he was cute and looked just like Woody from Cheers. Woody Harrelson was young and cute at the time.

We were glad Connie was starting to like someone who was a member of the type of church we attended. We hoped her ties with J.P. would be broken when she returned. Charlie lived in Mississippi and had attended the same boarding school that Don and Christi graduated from. He was now in college in Mississippi. 

After one week, Connie had already gone through all the money she had taken with her. Since camp hadn’t started, they were going into town and doing things. Her twenty-first birthday was the seventh of June, so we sent her a birthday card with money in it. Once the campers arrived, she wouldn’t be able to go away from camp often. The first week of campers would be for the blind kids.

With Christi living back home again, she was already starting to drive us nuts by staying out till all hours, and going in to work late in the morning. You had a doctor’s visit, and your blood pressure was up. The doctor had  to increase your medicine. I was sure Christi living with us again was contributing to the hypertension.

On June 12, O.J. Simpson’s wife was murdered and soon, O.J. became the suspect. This gave TV networks and talk shows fuel with which to drench the airways for many months to come, and would eventually end with what was called the trial of the century. Even those who weren't sports fans knew who O.J. was, but it hadn't occurred to us he might be capable of murder.


Evan is 65 and a retired drafting supervisor from Chevron Oil.
Beth is 56 and has had a variety of jobs. She is presently working temporary jobs.
Carol is 32, and a nurse, working at a hospital in Chattanooga and living in an apartment.  
Don is a twin. He is 31 and just graduated from Life Chiropractic College. 
Christi is Don’s twin.  She is working as a receptionist at a chemical company and doing massages on the side.
Kimberly Dye is Don’s wife. She is a nurse working in Atlanta.
Connie is our youngest daughter. She is twenty-one. She is a sophomore in college and only taking two courses.
Glen Egolf is Carol's ex-husband. He lives in Florida and works in Orlando.
J.P. is Connie's current boyfriend. Charlie is a new boy Connie's met at camp.
Pam and Neil are Carol's friends.

Larry is Christi's friend.
 

Recognized

Author Notes
I'm continuing to recall memories of life with my deceased husband, Evan, as if I am talking aloud to him. I'm doing this because I want my children to know us as we knew each other and not just as their parents.

     

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