Willie Nelson ~Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground~ 1982

My Dad

It's Father's Day today, and I have been trying to write this post all week. I have never had as hard a time writing as I did this time. As you already know I'm writing this about my dad. It's going to be hard to say everything I loved about him, because that would take a book. I'll just try to hit the highlights of life with my dad.First of all my dad wasn't a perfect man, but to a little girl that adored him, he was a Super Hero that could anything. To a young woman that loved him dearly, he could do no wrong.

My dad was a functioning alcoholic . He never missed a days work at his automobile trim shop. He was never abusive or obnoxious like most men that drink are. He was always quiet and would just go to bed and sleep it off.

My dad loved animals and we had quite a menagerie. We had dogs, a cat, several monkeys, a raccoon, and an alligator. All the critters had there own space, Dad had a pond dug for the alligator we had a place for the monkeys and raccoon. But they would manage to get out and roam the neighborhood at times and sometimes cause a disturbance. Most all of the neighbors knew who they belonged too; if they didn't know, the police did.

Dad would sometimes take one of his critters to work with him. On this particular day he took the raccoon. Now we all know that raccoons are curious animals and quite mischievous. Ours was no exception. He must have gotten bored because he decided he would explore the neighborhood and see what he could get into. Well he got in a lady's house, found some bread and preceded to wash it in her dishwater. He then went into her bathroom and squirted toothpaste all over the place. She came in and screamed and called the police. They called Dad and asked him if he was missing a raccoon. H went down and picked him up apologized to the lady and gave her I'm sure a substantial sum of money for damages.

One day Mom and I came home from dancing class and Mom went directly into the bathroom. We heard a bloodcurdling scream and ran to see what had happened. There in the bathtub was an alligator. Dad said "Oh I meant to tell you about that."

As I mentioned before we had several monkeys. We had one white-faced monkey that wasn't child friendly. My brother and I were told to stay away from him. Mom got up one morning and Eddie was missing. She was frantic and looking everywhere and calling to him. Then it came to her, the monkey. She went to where they were kept and there she found Eddie. He and the monkey had their arms around each other sharing an apple. I guess they turned out to be pretty good friends after all.

Everyone thinks you can't train an alligator, but my dad did. He would go out on the back steps and whistle. That gator would come running and eat raw meat out of Dad's hand. In the winter it was too cold for the alligator to stay in the pond, so Dad put him in a ditch beside our house and dug a hole for him to get under ground. Dad would go out and whistle and he would come out and eat. He would occasionally get out a get him a chicken for supper. Who would think of chickens in the city? This time he got caught and made the news with a policeman holding him up with a piece of wire. Dad paid the "chicken man" and he seemed happy with what he got.

When I was seven Dad sold the business just out of the blue and we moved to Miami. I thought I was in paradise. He took us to the beach every weekend and usually we stayed in a hotel to get an early start. Dad would take me way out on his back and we would watch the Sea Lions play. Then we would ride the waves back to shore. He took great care of his body on the outside by doing push ups usually with me on his back. He exercised regularly sometime chinning himself on our swing set. It was uncanny what he was doing to his body on the inside by drinking and smoking

My brother and I thought everything was wonderful until Mom filed for divorce. He started drinking more and staying out all night sometimes. She just couldn't take anymore. He stayed in Miami for a while thing Mom would reconsider. She gave him an ultimatum and he went back to Birmingham and lived with Nannie and Pop. He kept drinking for several years and finally Pop got him in rehab. He stayed there for quite a while until he knew he would never touch another drop, and he didn't.

To make a long story short, the years went by, I married and had a beautiful baby girl. Mom and Dad remarried after Sherri was born and we all moved back to Birmingham. I later got a divorce when Sherri was five and went back to work for Ma Bell.

When Sherri was in her teens we found out Dad had emphysema. He worked for several years and did taxademy on the side as a hobby. What started as a hobby turned into a proffitable living. He retired and did his taxadermy at home in his shop. He had customers from all over the country; He was that good.

Sherri grew up and married. Dad got worse and worse He spent the last two years in a recliner. He couldn't lay down even with oxygen. After five years of marriage Sherri had a baby girl Nikki. We were afraid he wouldn't live to see his great-granddaughter. She was born July 1st and he passed away three days befre Christmas 1990. I was with Mom when it happened. He never once complained the whole time he was ill. And then he just closed his eyes and went to sleep. my precious dad was gone forever.

Abusive Relationships

I am going to start my story at the end, because it is how I got away from a husband that abused and terrified me for ten horrible months.

It was Halloween, a time I had always liked, and a time when I had fond memories of past Halloweens, but this one was going to be different. I could feel it in the pit of my stomach. A friend of my husband's and his wife and kids came over to go trick or treating with my daughter and Gene's two sons. I didn't even know them, I wasn't allowed any friends of my own. Gene was at work,so Freddie told his wife he would be back to pick them up later. Gene had told me to come by the store where he worked every 20 minutes to check in. That was one way of controlling me. He was drinking as usual but I sensed something bad wrong but I couldn't put my finger on it.

We didn't stay out too long mainly because I was so nervous. We went back to the house and Gene came in and went straight to bed. When Freddie came to pick up his wife, I went into the bedroom and told him Freddie was out there. He looked me right in the eyes and said "Anne, tonight's the night you die". believe me I took him seriously.

I went back where "our Company" was and I asked if they would take me to my ex mother-in law house just down the street. Gene walked out about that time and was smiling and shook Freddie's hand. I started shaking, they would never believe me over him; he was so cunning. I began to cry, and asked Freddie again if he would get me out of there. Gene asked me what was wrong and I told him I wasn't staying there after what he said. He then told them I was upset,just like I was crazy, and it would be better if they left. I became hysterical and I guess I did act crazy, but Freddie said "I don't know whats going on, but I'm not going to leave her here with you.

Gene went crazy; he turned the kitchen table over and started breaking things. Freddie's wife tried to call the police, but he tore the out of the wall. She took Sherri and ran for help. I went in the bedroom to pack some clothes and he came in there and every time I put something in the suitcase, he would close the top down on me and hold it. Then he started throwing me all over the room; I think I bounced off of every wall in there, but I kept going like I had to have those clothes. Freddie told him if he touched me again he would have to go through him, that's when he got the gun. I was going to Sherri's room to get some clothes for her when I heard the gun go off. I had turned to go into the room or he would have shot me in the back. He hit me in the side instead .

Freddie told me to come on, he had to get me to the hospital. I told him I had to find Sherri first. I thought she would be at her grandmother's so we went there. The house was dark so I knew she wasn't there. I was running around the house knocking on all the doors and windows when they finally came to the door. I was bleeding a lot by then and they wanted to take me to the hospital. I told them I had to find Sherri. About that time Freddie's wife drove up with Sherri. She said Gene told her that he shot me and he hoped I was dead. That evil SOB told my baby I might be dead.

We held each other and cried and they got me to the hospital. Can you believe I was embarrassed in that emergency room on Halloween with a bullet in me. I kept telling this doctor that I was really a nice person. He said how could anyone shoot someone as little as you. I just weighed 88 pounds. The police came ,but I was afraid to press charges. I told them I just wanted to get as far away from him as I could.

My mom and brother came as soon as they heard. As soon as Mom got there she called the police to press charges herself. They told her that the investigating officer
had filed charges himself, and Gene had the bond money when he turned himself in.

I went back to B'ham with my mom and my brother and stayed with Mom and Dad. I thought I was rid of him,but he would call at night when Mom and Dad were at work and tell me he was on his way to finish the job. This went on for several years and finally some man shot him for fooling around with his underage daughter. He was in intensive care for five months, but he didn't die. Then he started calling again and I told him I had a gun and I would kill him if I ever saw his face. I never heard from him again. Either he believed me or maybe someone killed him; plenty of people had reason too. Anyway he can never find me because he doesn't know my last name or where I live. I have an idea that he's dead, I won't say I hope so...........




Notes: He was controlling, jealous, took my money as soon as I got paid. He insisted that I come across the street where he worked on my 15 min. breaks and my lunch hour and would no let me go back until 2 min. before I had to be on the job.....

He threatened to kill my family if I told them anything when they came to visit.

One night he got mad for no reason except being drunk, he ripped my clothes off and threw me out the door. I sat out there all scrunched up in a ball crying until he finally let me in. He wouldn't let me sit on any of the furniture and I was so tired I just wished he would go ahead and kill me' I went into the kitchen and sat down and he followed me in there. I jumped up and he told me I could sit back down, and he got down on his knees crying and telling me he would never hurt me again. Well he did again and again.

Another night my daughter Sherri had her two cousins over to spend the night. He got mad because the girls wanted coke with their pizza. He made them drink milk. We went to bed and he started thinking about it and told me he was going to kill me. He tore the curtains down and started hitting me with the curtain rods. He then got up to get something to put the curtains back up. He came back with an axe and stood up on the bed over me swinging that axe and said he was going to cut my head off. The girls heard all the commotion and started crying, so he settled down because he knew he would have to kill them too........