The Great Ryan Rescue Mission-Prologue

I'd like to say that Tammy & Ryan established their lives somewhere in Florida, where they now live as the Rodin-ic lovers that I witnessed in the gravel driveway of that disastrous mobile home that Ryan (and by all accounts 7 other people -at one time) lived. Unhindered and unaffected by the family in Lincoln which held Ryan and his issues captive.

I'd LIKE to say that. But that isn't what happened.

Up to 20 calls per day from Janice, led to Tammy seeking law enforcement intervention.

Janice's family joined Janice in her , in her attempts to manipulate Ryan (and Tammy).

The calls have finally (at this time) died down.

Ryan speaks with Janice's daughter--the one who threatened Tammy.

She has never apologized for the scene she made at Ryan's mother's funeral.

Apparently Ryan's brother-who accepted money (not a small amount of money, btw) from Tammy for

his mother's funeral, blames Tammy for the fact that his mother was going to be cremated and not interred. During the meeting at the funeral,(I later learned) that he proclaimed that "All of you are out of my life" and later sent Tammy a text blaming her further with language I don't usually post in my blog.

Not a long time after Ryan's return, it was learned that years of drinking and Pepsi and unhealthy life style has left him with diabetes.  Tammy is helping him care for his illness.

Ryan is no longer drinking.

Tammy-who was then, looking for another job, still has not been accepted by another company.

She is an amazing buyer, with mad skills and extreme ethics and knows the FAR (whatever that is) by heart. She lacks one thing....a diploma from college. As of yet, she has not found another job, or a Wizard of Oz, to bestow upon her an honorary degree to  honor her wisdom.

She is currently struggling to deal with her own health issues, which are exacerbated by stress, and she's working 60-70 hours a week for a system that doesn't seem to appreciate her.

To quote Stan from Southpark: as for me, I think I've learned some things:

The first is that everything my (other) longtime friend (who is from Alabama) told me about the small town rural areas of Alabama, is true. Horribly and inexplicably true.

2. Three people in two vehicles CAN drive from Alabama to Florida in one 24 hour period, if they are  ( believe that they are) being chased.

3. Apparently cremation is some sort of offense to the deceased, if the deceased is a "Lady" . (if anyone understands this, please let me know).

I have one regret, that I have been unable to contact Shep, in the wake of all of this. He is a dear and tender soul, and I would have liked to have gotten to know him better.

Until next time,

Eat something wonderful and live a life worth loving,

-Kim

The Great Ryan Rescue Mission-Evading Capture

The Great Ryan Rescue Mission-Evading Capture.

Leaving the funeral parking lot at the speed of a scared rabbit, we headed off to the Hotel. We had to pick up Ryan's jeep. Which we did, filled up the cars and headed (at great speed and with the focus of a laser beam) out of town....out of the county.....out of the state.

About 100 phone calls from the family from heck and several hours later, we elected to stop to change from our funeral cloths.

Ryan hopped out of his jeep , with amazingly pleasant demeanor, and teasingly said "That's what they call evading capture".

Tammy and I repaired to the bathroom of the McDonalds where we stopped , to change into more comfortable travel cloths. I remember being nauseous at the thought that anyone would act in such a manner, at the funeral of someone they all professed to love.

After cleaning up, I rejoined them to learn that the phone calls were mostly to Ryan "Tell us where you are and if you're ok" and "We have things to talk about" and "I have something of your mama's to give to you" and the like. Apparently, they expected that Ryan (and company) would stay in repose at the hotel where we had been staying.

I don't know why they would believe that we would stay in a place , where it had been made graphically clear that we were not welcome.

The way home was long and arduous. Ryan was very tired....we all were.

Tammy and I made all kinds of (Inappropriate) jokes about Tammy not being allowed in Alabama ever again, and that there would be pictures of her on Billboards with the title "Jezabel" . (Tammy has , since , been through Alabama. I think she was a bit disappointed to find that no such billboards exist!...I mean, if you can't be welcome, second best is notorious, right?)

But we made it back to my home after midnight. All collapse into bed and safety of Melbourne, Florida.

 At last there would be an end to the abuse and the harassment...or would there be?

The Great Ryan Rescue-Last pieces---at long last.

Several months ago, I had nearly finished this Blog, when....kablooey, some sort of computer glitch wiped out the rest of the story. So here it is, the rest of the story:

After returning from lunch, we saw that Ryan had not been over to the hotel. So we went to go see if he was ok.

As it happened , Janice had been home, accused Ryan of knowing ahead of time that Tammy was in town and they had a painful exchange, which, by Ryan's account ended in him telling Janice he was (and had always been) in love with Tammy.

Janice was not there when we arrived, neither was Ryan's Jeep. Janice drove it to a friend/family member's and left it there.  By accounts, Janice did that quite often.

While I was ruminating and saddened over the situation that this cute dog was finding shelter from the baking sun, underneath a decrepit recliner, rusticating in the front yard, Ryan was explaining all of this to Tammy.

Once again , we mounted the Land Yacht and drove to collect Ryan's Jeep and then headed over to the hotel.

Ryan and Tammy talked and talked and talked some more. They talked about what happened and why Ryan didn't call (he honestly believed that Tammy wouldn't believe that he was trapped by Janice).

They talked about what they wanted to do.

They talked about Tammy's hopes for their relationship.

Things were winding down to a less emotional state when the phone rang and the person at the front desk said that Janice wanted to come to the room .

We came out...Ryan was insistent that he didn't want to discuss things any further with her.

In hindsight...this would turn out to be one of the few cogent choices made during this rescue mission.

I wish I would have listened to him, rather than convincing him to go back to the hotel room and hash things out.

 But hindsight is 20/20.

We did go back to the hotel room and Ryan stated , what he had said before . He was in love with Tammy and (if she would have him) he would be going to Florida.

The things that Janice said during that conversation would have made June (Honey-Boo-boo's mom) blush.

It was made clear to both Tammy and me , that she was (at least one of) the  cause of Ryan's captivity and abuse.

 I would like to believe , after that huge  hump  it was all uphill from there.

It was not.

 After that, Janice's daughter called and threatened Tammy and called her a "jezebel" (I seriously didn't think anyone used that term outside of Bible study any more).

We were informed (and I don't really recall who told us this) that the cemetery plot, where Ryan's mother was to be interred was being rescinded and there would be no funeral the next day.

Also, Ryan's brother , who , the previous day, we had had lunch with and seemed to be appreciative (if not grateful) that Tammy capped the funds for the funeral services to proceed, stopped communicating with us.

 All this was followed by a plethora of stories (from Ryan) about the ill behavior of this family--especially at funerals.  Concern was such that, Ryan called and asked for a police presence at his Mother's funeral.

When we arrived , at the funeral,  they all seemed loaded for bear. Surrounding the distraught Ryan, closing ranks around him. The previously social and appreciative brother not speaking to either Tammy or me.

The police offer was there and pardon the pun but he was big as a bear and vigilant.  

In the midst of this the funeral director needed a meeting with the "family". Tammy was included in the group on Ryan's behest...and me....I was relegated to the LGBT corner, which was interesting and non-confrontational.  I was just beginning to feel a bit at ease, when Tammy, and Ryan walking rapidly toward the door said to me "We're leaving".

I was saying "Hello" and Good-bye", to one of the few people who seems to really care for Ryan , whom I had never met, when , from behind me and urgent "Kim! Get in the Car!" , I got in the car. That's when I saw to my disbelief we were actually being chased, by Janice's family, out of the Funeral Home.

Then there was "the hook". Janice's daughter pulled a box of "Ryan's things" from her truck and Ryan wanted them. We were almost out of the parking lot.  We stopped.

She slung the box into his lap, and pressed her head into the open car door and said "I'm going to get your ass before you leave this county , don't you doubt that , you bitch!" which she spat in Tammy's direction.

Tammy, kept her head down and offered no response. Tammy is no stranger to physical abuse.

As we were on the way out of the parkinglot, Ryan discovered they were all of his and Tammy's wedding pictures (that Tammy had put in an album for him)  . All of these mementos had been torn and cut into pieces.

We made egress with great alacrity, needless to say.