After reading Merrym's blog from yesterday I can feel nothing but anger at myself that I was not more involved at that time in my sisters' lives. Yes, I lived in Utah, but I should have been calling and checking on them. A person can make all kinds of excuses: I had two little ones of my own, we were running a business that was not doing so well, we had very little money and as Peggy has said, calling on a phone back then was very expensive. Merrym was a baby when I got married and left home (I am almost 18 years older than her). I was barely surviving in my own situation. Boy, if I work at it I can come up with 20 more excuses why I wasn't more involved.
Merrym has always been a people-pleaser and it gets her into trouble to this day. She tries to befriend everyone and she trusts people without even knowing them. It usually takes her a few encounters with someone before she realizes what kind of person they really are.
One of her most recent experiences began when she was in the nursing home this last time. She began visiting with a woman, who was a temporary patient also. She told the lady how wonderful her church was and how they had helped her so much. The woman seemed interested. Merrym invited her to church and gave the woman her phone number. This woman almost drove Merrym crazy calling her numerous times a day and asking what the church could do for her. She really wasn't interested in going to church at all. Merrym finally had to change her phone number to get some peace from this situation.
Another time she had some so called church friends, who started slowly working their way into Merrym's life. They came, played games and took Merrym places. After a while this couple lost their home for not paying the mortgage. They began spending more time at Merrym's, eating, sleeping, storing things, and even had their mail coming there. At first she was OK with it, but after a while and with my pointing a few things out to her, she realized she had a problem. They even did drugs in her house when she wasn't home. It took work, but we finally ended that situation. When Merrym moved from that place, they still had a few of their things stored there and mail was still coming for them also.
The last situation I will talk about in this blog is about a young woman close to Merrym's daughter's age. She had two little girls and lived in the same apartment complex. It began with her visiting, then she started cooking and bringing food to share, then cooking at Merrym's house, and after a while she even cleaned Merrym's apartment for her. "Seems like a nice person, right?" Not only did this cause jealousy on Courtney's part because this girl was spending more time with Merrym than she could (Courtney was working and this girl wasn't) but a few small things began to disappear: DVDs, videos, CDs etc. But that wasn't the worst of it. Merrym began missing meds. She even had to go weeks at a time without pain meds because there was not enough and the insurance wouldn't pay for more. At first this girl was supposedly trying to help Merrym figure it out. But as more and more began to come up missing, Merrym realized the girl was stealing them. She tried to break things off with the girl by telling her that she didn't need her to clean any more, and started carrying her percocet and oxycotin in her purse, which she had attached to her wheelchair. The real clincher came when Merrym got sick and Courtney rushed her to the hospital. I got to the ER as fast as possible. While I was talking to Merrym and Courtney, I picked up Merrym's purse and realized that her pills were spilled in the bottom. With Merrym's supervision I put the pills in the right bottles and tightened the lids.
Low and behold in walked this girl. She had heard from the neighbors that Merrym was sick. A nurse came in to put Merrym on a bed pan. Courtney and I stepped outside the room to give Merrym some privacy. This girl said she was going to stay in and visit with Merrym. Suddenly I heard Merrym screaming "Glory, Glory, she's taking my pills!" I went in quickly and saw the girl holding the purse with her back to Merrym. I asked what she was doing. She said that pills were all over the bottom of the purse and she was just putting them in the bottles. I said "You're lying, I just did that!" Merrym was screaming and the girl quickly left without saying a word. I looked and found that at least half of Mer's pills were gone. I called and told the girl never to step foot in Merrym's house again and threatened her with the police. Justice was later served when we saw her mug shot on the news, because she had been involved in a drug scam.
I realize that Merrym has been so trusting, because she has tried to live a Christian life, is lonely and quick to forgive. We encourage Mer to use more discretion when she reaches out to others or they reach out to her. Which is a difficult decision for Mer.
Avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is Vengeance is mine; I will repay saith the Lord.
Romans 12:19
Love, Mother Hen Glory
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