Just so you will know, many, many people offered to help the family with you. Some wanted to adopt. I quit my job and made myself available to help in any way I could. Shawna was prepared to do the same. Tye wouldn't hear of it. She tried for awhile to make it on her own. There was the still new, big house of your mother's, but now what it was the scene of a crime, Tye thought it would be best to keep you away from it. She wasn't sure what you would remember. After a month or so, she had me, Wyvone, and Shawna help her clean it and get ready to sell. It was probably one of the most difficult things I had ever done. Sometime when you get older, I will tell you about that.
After awhile, Bill, Wyvone and Josie moved out to the ranch to help Tye. They gave up the place in Blanket and moved to Zephyr. About this time Joey and Shawna broke up and Joey started dating Reyna. I thought about omitting this part because I felt it wasn't relevant, but looking back I see just how relevant it was. Joey and Shawna did eventually get back together and they did take ya'll in from time to time and are a very important part of your life. You already know this. Had the two of them stayed together I think the course of events may have been different, but who can truly know that though? Shawna is a nuturer and having her 3, James, and you 3 suited her and Joey. Unbeknownst to me, in God's bigger picture, this was all for the best. Billy's diabetes had starting going down hill fast. The seizures were devestating enough for me and Stephanie and you three had already been through too much as it was.
Shortly after Bill and Wyvone settled in Zephyr is when Tye had the breast cancer and Wyvone was diagnosed with Hepatitis C. Tye came across and old classmate from elementary school named Gene and they married quickly. None of us liked Gene...he was a gold digger! He had been married many times with maybe 6 months from divorce to the next marriage. Tye had her stroke when she was married to Gene. He insisted on "taking care" of her which consisted of him taking deep sea fishing trips. Tye did get to go on one before her stroke, but that was it. He was also instrumental in having you three placed in a group children's home.
Bill and Wyvone had given up their life in Blanket to move to the ranch and care for you....but Gene obviously had Tye convinced that you'd be better off away. When we started seeing Gene for the crook that he was...we ran him off....We may be a poor, redneck family, but you cross one of us...you cross all of us. We had help from the family at the Cherokee Home for Children too...(Mary and David)
Tye's was loosing her edge. Her mind was going. Gene had basically had her mind twisted and brainwashed. She had wrote a very hurtful, ugly letter to Wyvone, she refused to believe the accusations we had on Gene, even with proof.
Wyvone was an avid reader and loved V.C. Andrews books. I say this because this is when the story turns to a "Flowers in the Attic" feel. The storyline is about a ruthless grandmother who treats her own daughter like crap while the grandchildren she doesn't claim lived locked away in the attic. As much as we tried to write it off as stroke dementia or early Alzheimer's, it was still hard for a daughter who loved her mother so much put up with the vindictive, hurtful, spiteful, evil things Tye said during this time. They say people with Alzheimer's hurt the ones they are closest too. The doctor never ruled it as such because she would change personalities around other people. Around Wyvone, Tye became the most hateful old woman I had ever seen.
Even with Wyvone's own medical conditions, her and Bill stayed at the Ranch even after you three were put in Cherokee to care for Tye. They would take her to visit ya'll too. I am not quite sure what happened at Cherokee, I think Mary and David were moving and ya'll came back home. Tye wanted to do it on her own, with Bill and Wyvone across the yard, just an earshot away.
It didn't work. You three were too small and into way to much stuff. Tye wasn't able to get out of bed on her own. I think it was a home health agent that reported you as neglected. When CPS got involved, you went to Stephenville. I was working on getting you in the Hendrick Home in Abilene, but Tye wouldn't hear of it. She only wanted you in a Church of Christ home.
None of us wanted to see you go again, but we knew it was for the best. You needed away from all the hurt and pain and needed to be somewhere where you'd be cared for. I am not the biggest fan of the Foster's Home in Stephenville...and that is another story for when you get older.
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