Moving on Chapter 29

When Kendra was about a year old Richard and I found out we were pregnant. It was a mix of excitement and fear.

A few months after we found out we were expecting some friends of ours found out they might loose their house, Richard and I decided we would move in and help them out since our lease on the apartment was up and we were looking into moving into a larger place anyways...we figured we would stay with our friends for a few months while helping them get on their feet (he had lost his job and she was 6 months pregnant with their second child).

The agreement was they would cover the utilities and we would cover buying food, the phone bill (back when everyone still had land lines) and the mortgage, as well as pay the 2 months they were delinquent.  When we moved in, everything was fine, they were very grateful for our help and he had already gotten a new job, we would live there for 4 months, long enough for him to get to full pay at this new place and it would enable them to put some money in savings.

A month after we moved in with them it all went to hell. She would leave the house early in the morning, leave her daughter there and me a note to take care of her. I wouldn't even know till I got up that morning and saw the note sitting on the stove or kitchen table.

I was having a very rough pregnancy, terrible morning sickness, dizzy a lot, insomnia. I had told J (the wife) that she needed to stop leaving her daughter with me, that I just couldn't do it anymore, it was too much with the symptoms I was having. The next morning she was gone, her daughter was asleep and there was the note. Richard was home that day, as I had a drs appointment late that morning. I woke him up and he called R (the husband) he didn't know where J was or how to get a hold of her,  R didn't see what the big deal was "since Starr is home anyways" and we would have to take Kendra to the drs with us why not just take Kendra and Addy. Richard hung up on him and called J's mom.....she didn't know where he daughter was either but said she would be at the house with in the hour to pick her up from us.

As we were getting ready to leave for the drs later that morning when we saw a red tag on the front door handle......THEY HADN'T PAID THE WATER BILL SINCE WE MOVED IN!!! and they were threatening to shut the water off by the end of the week if it wasn't paid in full. Richard and I both decided that we were moving out as soon as we possibly could, we would start looking for places as soon as we got back from the dr's.


When we came back to the house after my appointment there were a few messages on the answering machine, one was from Lee and she sounded like she had been crying.
I immediately called her back, Randy was in New Mexico, he was also dying. He was in hospice and wanted to see me. I hung up the phone with Lee and told Richard. He said start packing we will leave tonight. When J and R came home we told them we would be gone for a couple days and why, they were very sympathetic and said they hoped we made it in time. 30 min later we were on the road to New Mexico.



We got there too late.....Randy died 2 hours before we made it to the hospital. I was devastated.   No matter what he had done, he was still my father and he wanted to see me before he died. I had to sit with a rep from hospice and give them all Randy information they didn't have for his death certificate, I barley made it through.

I was so drained when we left the hospital I felt like I could sleep for days. We got a hotel that night and would be leaving for home the next morning. Hospice was having Randy cremated since that is what he wanted, they would send me his ashes in the next few weeks.


The next morning we were back on the road to home, about an hour into the long stretch of desert highway I started cramping, I had Richard pull over and when I got out of the car blood was running down my leg.