Michael

Good Evening Followers!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while but life has been throwing me some curve balls these last few years. In 2016, we moved, 2017 my mom passed away and this year Michael was arrested and spent 6 months in jail and is now in a facility but doing really well! I wanted to give you all an update on him because he used to love to post on this blog. He will again soon!

 Anyway, he suffered quite a few mini strokes and because of them, he was like a vegetable in many ways. He would just stay in his room watching tv all day. All he wanted to do was eat and watch television. He started going to the doctors and they suggested he get some brain help by getting therapy but his wife had enough and was just done helping him.

 Years went by and he began to get irritated. He started wanting to go out a bit and buy junk food, get cigarettes, and just have some control back in his life. I guess his brain started coming back to life after a while. He started telling his wife he needed money and she wouldn't give him any of his disability check which was quite large. She kept telling him they couldn't afford it. He started finding ways to get what he needed by sneaking money from her purse, borrowing from a neighbor, and just bugging her. She started giving him $40 a month which was not enough.

He eventually would share with me that he was getting tired of feeling like a prisoner in his own home. I suggested to him to go to the bank and put his money back into his own account but he just never did it. I don't now if he was scared, or just didn't know where the bank was. It started to really eat away at him though. He started telling me that he wanted to leave her and a few months later he asked me if he could move in with me or my son. We tried to make it work out for him but he was so anxious that he just couldn't wait anymore. He packed his suitcase and told his wife that he wanted his money, the keys to the car, and his ID. Her and her daughters kept ignoring his requests and telling him to wait a few more months. He just could not do it. He was wasting away and getting more and more angry.

A few weeks later, he finally had had it and he threatened her after she again put him off. He ended up holding a knife up to her to scare her and she called the police. He ran from the house before the police arrived but he had taken her phone too. He called her on the land line I guess and she told him to come back. He was scared and so he did. He was arrested and it looked pretty bad for him mainly due to taking the cell phone. She told the police that she didn't want him in jail but that he needed help and needed to be in a facility.

 The DA and his public defender and the judge finally agreed after I wrote a letter to the judge, and a professional medical evaluation, and a letter from Michael to the judge. Thank God they listened because jail was not what he needed. He spent 6 months and I had to intervene a few times and get him transferred due to his inability to follow rules due to his memory. He was scared and they decided to take me seriously and moved him to LA where he got help.

He is now in a facility doing really well learning a lot, going to meetings, and working the program. He's been there 3 months and he is on his first weekend out on his own. He called me and was so excited to have some freedom. He has had his money back since he entered the facility and he has even paid off a tax debt and is excited to make agreements to pay off his medical bills. Him and his wife will never see each other again unless its in court for a divorce. He's glad about that because together they were very unhealthy. I'm so proud of how far he's come.

I share this story to tell you that if he can come back to life after such a scary 9 months and the prison like life he had living in his home then you can too. Don't give up hope. Don't resort to threats, get help, get your life back and ask for help. You are loved. God bless you, Lilia