Columbus OH

It's been a very rocky ride since these snowbirds returned from a relaxing 2 months along the Gulf coast. They have been in constant 24/7 crisis mode that only now is beginning to calm down

Tuesday (6 April) Bobbi and Lew picked Paul up from the hospital -- and a friend who also was in recovery with him. As soon as Paul was home, Rob re-newed his feud with Paul. When Bobbi and Lew would not answer his phone calls, he texted Lew to try to hit him up for money. Rob came by later that same Tuesday afternoon and threatened Paul. Now some months earlier Bobbi and Lew along with Rob's therapist/advocate had agreed that Rob was to get no more money after Bobbi and Lew returned -- so Lew listened politely, but in the end responded with an unequivocal "no". But at Bobbi's insistance, Lew eventually "loaned" Rob $400 just to get him to go away and not mess up Paul's recovery. Bobbi and Lew even omitted mass due to the stress.

Four days later (the afternoon of the 10th) Rob parked in front of the house bootlegging my WiFi signal (it should be noted that there are many other Wi-Fi signals near by which Rob could bootleg just as easily). Paul needed to take his friend to Chillicothe to visit her home, but Rob refused to move. Eventually Lew had to escort them out to Paul's car and wait until they had driven off while Rob was arguing with Lew. Again, the whole scene had exhausted Bobbi so much she did not go to mass.

Paul and April returned that evening, but Paul took her to Chillicothe again on the 13th. Meanwhile, Rob tried to reach Lew by phone, but thanks to caller ID, Lew simply did not pick up. Rob left rather abusive voice mails for Lew, but he ignored those as well -- finally responding to one by texting (it's hard to interrupt and be abusive in text). Lew arranged to meet Rob in the van in Rob's parking lot on Thursday (the 15th), at which time Rob tried to intimidate Lew for more money -- which doesn't work with Lew. That evening Rob's therapist/advocate got involved, reversing his former stand and advising that Bobbi and Lew support Rob until 1 July.

In the middle of the night -- actually, early Sunday morning, the 18th -- everyone in the house noticed a great commotion outside across the street, with several police cars in front of the neighbor's house. However, it wasn't the first time this had happened, so Bobbi and Lew simply rolled over and went back to sleep. The next morning Paul told them that Rob had been sitting outside again and got into an argument with the neighbor, eventually threatening him with a knife. When Lew met Rob that afternoon (again in the van in Rob's parking lot), Rob subjected Lew to a prolonged threatening and delusional tirade (not unexpected, even when he was receiving money) denying that he had done anything, or even that he had a knife.

While all this was going on, April was progressively showing more disorientation and memory impairment. I suspected, and Paul evenually confirmed, that she had found some old medication in our medicine cabinet and had relapsed. So on 2 May Bobbi and Lew went through the entire house ferreting out every old pill they could find, eventually dissolving them, and running the fluid into the garden. At the same time Paul brought Lew the guns (April had a record of suicide attempts) and Bobbi gathered together all the fenceable items in the house. Bobbi stashed the fenceables in a safe-deposit box, while Lew stashed the guns in the Airstream. On the next Wednesday (5th), April elected to move back to Chillicothe, and Paul drove her down. But her dealer continues to phone Lew trying to get hold of her.

At the opposite pole from crises is the comfort of religion. Of course Bobbi has attended daily mass whenever the crises permitted -- she even managed to get to services on Good Friday and Easter. But more significantly, on 27 April (Tuesday) Bobbi met with Bishop Calloway of the Southern Ohio Synod of the ELCA to turn in her resignation from the ELCA clergy roster, and that evening Fr. Benecki confirmed her and received her (officially) into the Catholic Church. She already had assurances from Bishop Campbell that he would support her prison ministry. And she has been ministering gleefully in FHC since she came back. In fact, the last two Mondays she has conducted services for the Catholic Deacon.

Lew does his little part by being a eucharistic minister. But he also saw Deaf patients in Troy, Piqua, and Dayton on 5, 21, and 28 April.

On the legal front, Bobbi and Lew turned in the taxes in April, and Bobbi gave a deposition for her suit against a lady who ran a stop sign in front of us a few years ago.

Lew has duplicated Luther's DVD of photos from both the Lindner and Franke families so he can share them. They will be coming along

And for readers who may be mothers -- a happy belated Mother's Day!