JESUS LOVES YOU!

The Prelude

Thu, 15 May 2008 23:30:16 GMT

Eight Years of Medical Disasters & Personal Tragedies

My mother was in a coma for nearly six years. The final cost was over one-million dollars.($14,000 per month) While she was at the local hospital my brothers, my step-father and I were at her side 24-hours a day. Someone from the family was always there, praying, talking to her, waiting and hoping she would come out of the coma. We watched for signs of response to our talking to her or touching her.

Eventually, we did research to find a medical institution that specialized in head injuries and found one in Boston. Boston was known to have some of the best hospitals in the world. A place called the Greenery Rehabilitation Center in Brighton, Mass was a leading head injury medical center which had had some remarkable results bringing people out of comas. The family decided we should move her to Boston and get her under specialized head-injury care. But there was a problem. The local hospital would not release her. If a patient is under a doctor’s care or a hospital’s care they can prevent you from transferring. The hospital refused to let us transfer my mother to Boston.

I immediately enlisted the aid of Congressman Gerald Solomon, a well-known fighter for veterans and he moved swiftly applying pressure on the local hospital to release my mother. Daily I was meeting with hospital officials who were refusing to let us get my mother to Boston. The local hospital had a nursery and skilled nursing care unit and it was evident they did not want to release my mother from under their care when they could make a lot of money with my mother being in their catastrophic nursing unit.

Finally, Congressman Solomon convinced the hospital to release my mother and I was informed we could make the transfer to Boston. Family members and others engaged in the process to get my mother moved. The arrangement was made to transport her long distance to Boston by ambulance. Following behind the ambulance, several family members rode with me as I drove in my car.

When we finally arrived at the Greenery several hours later, we were greeted by doctors and nurses and other medical staff. The first thing they told us was they needed to remove the oxygen the local hospital had kept my mother on. The oxygen prevented my mother from trying to breathe on her own and would hamper her recovery, not enhance it. The second thing they told us, was that if they had gotten my mother sooner they could have brought her out of the coma but with the local hospital not releasing her (Six months had elapsed) it damaged and severely weakened her chance for recovery primarily because the local hospital had not been providing the proper care to stimulate her to come out of the coma. They had only stabilized and maintained her.

At the Greenery, my mother was not on any life support machines of any kind. She fought death and hung in there on her own, with the Lord. She only had a trac or feeding tube track. Nearly six years went by with my brothers and step-father and I making weekly and sometimes twice weekly trips to Boston. I wore out two cars in that time. It was an eight-hour round trip driving made once or twice a week. We would roll her out to the court yard in her wheel chair and talk with her in the sunny fresh air. But after six years, hope was fading. The Greenery had done some remarkable things. Each visit we saw the results of people who would have died if left at local hospitals. The Greenery was years, perhaps light years ahead of other medical centers in bringing people out of comas. They had a remarkable success rate. It was astonishing, almost a miracle to witness the people who had survived head injuries and comas.

One year to the date that my mother went into the local hospital the new law went into effect that exempted the forced sale of personal and real estate property for those families with catastrophic patients receiving government assistance with medical bills. The county had moved swiftly, and afterwards it was apparent why, they knew the law was coming, it was on the books. Family property had been sold and lost to satisfy the county. In the end, as much as the lost of property stung, the amount of dollars in medical care was far more than what the property was worth. Yet, had the county not been so aggressive, in the few weeks that followed, that property would have been exempted. I learned later, that one county employee in a management position quit his job and left government work because of the incident which he thought was wrong, being that the property was soon to be exempt and the county’s push for selling the assets had been so aggressive.

The Greenery eventually announced they no longer felt that there was any chance my mother could come out of the coma. We then tried to get her back to New York so my step-father could visit her daily. Not at the local hospital were we originally started from, but another specialized hospital nursery in town. (Once Mom was out of the local hospital, I started talking with some top lawyers to discuss suing the hospital. We obtained the records and the lawyer I was dealing with was also a doctor and professor. He taught malpractice law to other doctors and attorneys. Eventually we decided not to sue. The Lawyer had offered to use a team of young, fresh out of college law students who had just came to work for his law firm. I felt they would be an excellent choice since they would want to make a name for themselves and the senior lawyer would be guiding them. It would have been a win-win situation since a number of wrongful deaths had occurred at the local hospital and many law suits were opening up. But a law suit would not bring back my mother and financially damaging a place that was a hospital didn’t seem right. The hospital had made a number of changes including firing administrators on down to nurses who had neglected their duties. So, the end result was the change which had come about as the hospital improved patient care. Therefore, we never followed through with the law suit.)

But we were never able to move my mom back home, either, at least not alive. She had been transferred to St. Elizabeth Hospital in Boston. They had discovered she had cancer. We drove to Boston and spoke to a team of doctors. Her cancer was at an elevated state and they informed us she would not have long to live. When I asked the doctor how long we could expect, he said, “It’s not like on TV, we really don’t know. It could be a few days, weeks or even months. But the only thing I can tell you, it will eventually happen, the cancer is well-developed.” I was baffled how she could have been under medical care in medical facilities all this time and the cancer could have developed to such a late stage without detection. My only conclusion was that there was no medical way possible she was going to come out of the coma, at this point, and it was the Lord who said it was time to take her home and end the heavy burden this had on the family for so many years. But if we had to do it all over again, we would not have changed anything, except to have been more aggressive in getting her out of the local hospital and under the care of those who knew how to bring someone out of a coma. Incidentally, there have been cases where people have been in a coma for up to a quarter of a century and had one day woken up. Faith is what held us together during those long years. Faith kept us strong in the hours of our weakest moments.

Less than a couple of weeks, perhaps even a few days, she was gone. The local funeral home director, someone who grew up with me and my brothers transported her body back to New York and we had a funeral. It was Christmas. The nearly six years of personal agony was over with. My mother had fought a long, hard battle but ultimately lost. Now she could be in peace. I asked a priest one time why my family always died at Christmas time. After a long pause, the reply was, “because they were going home to be with the Lord for Christmas.” It was the salutation I needed. The moment those words were spoken to me it felt like a ton of bricks lifted off my shoulders. It was the only thing that made sense. I could look at it in a different way now, thanks to the priest.

My father had died when I was 17. He died the winter before my high school graduation. He never got to see me graduate, at least not from an earthy view. I was too young to loose a father and too old to gain another one. My step-father and I had some very turbulent years when he first came into the picture. We had been friends, and he was a good man, a family friend, and he brought food over and looked after us after Dad died. But once he started courting my mom sometime later, my younger brother and I wasn’t ready for that. The other four older siblings were out of the house, off to war or college. But eventually, the genuine love he displayed toward my mother made me realize I was out of line. His unbridled love for my mother appeased any previous displeasure I may have had in their relationship. They were both truly happy. And that’s all that counts. As the years went by I developed great respect for him. While my mom was in the coma he stayed by her side all those years, never once did his faith falter. He never went to a bingo game without her. He never went out on any social outing. He waited and waited for her to come home. Right up until the day she died, he had faith and hope that she would come out of the coma and come back home to be with him. He was a man who had won incredible odds before and his faith wouldn’t falter now.

Six months later, (after Mom died) my step-father suffered from a serious stroke. He was paralyzed and his speech was gone. Over the next two years my younger brother and me would stay with him around the clock so he could come home and under go home therapy and home-visiting nurses. My brother and I both had fulltime jobs, but worked opposite shifts. So, we took 12-hour shifts staying with my stepfather while he recovered. He was an independent guy and didn’t want people waiting on him. Rather he could do something on his own or not, he always tried. It took two years for him to make a full recovery, and all but a trace of speech problems remained. The home therapist were excellent and his recovery, although took two years was now complete. So, after nearly eight years of medical nightmares my brothers and I could finally move on with our lives. Nothing would be the same, but much was learned over those eight long years of medical disasters and personal tragedies.

I would never have revealed the contents of the immediately previous or following entries except to show others how strong faith can lead to one’s purpose in life. These things were most private to me, not something I cared to write publicly about. Through loss, with faith, one finds the true purpose in life. There is a reason for everything. Sometimes we find that hard to believe, especially while we are going through it, but in the end we find the reason, our purpose in life. Then it all makes sense.

There were other personal disasters before and after these eight years, but I won’t go into them. It was time to move on. Not that anyone tried, one thing was for certain. There was nothing anyone could do that could hurt me any more than I’d already been hurt. There was nothing I would fear. In comparison, the mean streets of Las Vegas, sleeping on the streets and going through the “system” was simply a merry-go-round ride. The demons in Vegas were not going to get me down. But in the process, I discovered them. For those I found out there, the homeless, when I arrived on the streets, I knew my cause. Back in New York, I’ve cried my river, I’ve built my bridge and I got myself over it… at least enough to carry on and move forward. There must have been a reason the Lord planted me in Vegas. Or so it seems.

Thorns and snares are in the way of the froward; he that doth keep his soul shall be far from them. Proverbs 22:5 KJV

He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed; for he giveth of his bread to the poor.

Proverbs 22:9 KJV

Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.

Let all your things be done in charity.

1 Corinthians 16:13-14 KJV

Thanks for joining me. God Bless You.

And always remember, JESUS LOVES YOU!

River

Las Vegas, Nevada

Thursday, 15 May 2008

Tags: Jesus, God, Christianity, Faith, Coma, Head-Injuries, The Greenery, Boston, Congressman Gerald Solomon, Prayers, Strokes, Dealing with Sickness & Death, Homelessness, Priest, Going Home

The Day After Tomorrow

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 18:21:30 GMT

A couple of weeks ago I wrote an entry consisting of a mini auto-bio. I had spent a few hours and had tried to show my readers of the diverse, yet united family and friends environment I had grown up with. I needed to do much research and that required me to jump back and forth to other windows. Needless to say, when I was just about done and ready to publish my entry I accidentally clicked the back button on the "Add An Entry" window and lost everything.

Just like flushing the toilet a masterpiece went down the drain. As the grandpa on the Real McCoy's would have said, "No brag, just facts."

I then wrote an entry scolding AOL for having such an outdated program, of which I deleted/canceled. But I will say this, Come on AOL, pull your pants up and get with the program. It is the year 2008 of our Lord. Most journals or blogs or any other text entry has a safety switch with something like, "If you exit this work all will be lost, do you wish to continue to exit?" Um, duh?

I have friends who are far left-wing liberals. I have just as many friends who are right-wing conservatives. Many of my friends in New York have labeled me a Liberal Republican. Others called me a Conservative Democrat. And still others called me an Independent. Some have called my way of thinking as radical. I am none of the above, really. I take each issue or subject at hand and make my decision which I feel is right or wrong. There is a right way and there is a wrong way.

In my mini auto-bio I had written about being raised with traditional American values. I'm not radical at all. The world around me is radical. In the late 60s and early 70s our nation changed. It changed radically. Men who went to Nam came back home to find the nation they had fought for entirely something different than when they went to that Asian war, which was never classified as a war until much later.

Legalized abortions, same-sex marriages, and a whole lot of things changed since that time in the late 60s. That was radical, not traditional.

Growing up as a 4-H Club member (Two clubs) I carried on the 4-H motto and pledge throughout my life.

4-H Motto:

To Make The Best BETTER

4-H Pledge:

I pledge my HEAD to clearer thinking

my HEART to greater loyalty

my HANDS to larger service

and my HEALTH to better living for my club, my community, my country and my world.

That is what the four Hs stand for. That is me. That is traditional. That is right, not wrong, in a world that has gone drastically wrong since I first made my pledge and promised to make the best BETTER.

That was before the day after tomorrow.

Life went on. I remember being in high school when the first radical teacher's strike struck. An old school teacher who came out of retirement to fill the class while the younger teachers were on strike said to us in her first moment of class, "When I was a teacher, I taught because my heart was in teaching. My husband was the breadwinner, and I wanted nothing more than to teach...."

And so the world changed.

That is not to say that today's teachers are less than those of yesterday. A good teacher, like a good nurse, like a good police officer comes from the heart. The heart of greater loyalty.

But we seem to follow the pack sometimes, even when the pack goes down the wrong path. Some 1600 to 1700 years ago a man wrote this passage which is just as true today as it was back then. Just like the Bible is as true today as it was back when. Some things never change.

Following The Crowd

"Young men don't laugh much on their own, or boast much on their own. But when they get together, what starts as fun ends up as something cruel, greedy or vicious. They're afraid of being different, of standing against the crowd, of being thought of as cowards. They are ashamed that they aren't shameless! What a travesty of human nature, that friendship and companionship, gifts of God, can be so perverted -- that what is essentially good can yet seduce us into sin." -- Saint Augustine, The Subtlety of Sin, in the Confessions

Christ's Choice

"He could have come down from the cross, but he preferred to rise up from the tomb." -- Saint Augustine, The Wisdom of Saint Augustine

Baron vs Beagle, The Original Dogfight

A Dog's Dream

River's Jukebox

Royal Guardsmen: Snoopy & The Red Baron

A Salute

America's First Team Fallen Soldiers

First Team Videos & More

Black Horse

To make the best BETTER. We can never go wrong if we conduct our lives with a motto like that. If we add the GMC motto to that, "Do one thing and do it well" we as a nation can accomplish anything our hearts desire. If we joined hands in the unbroken circle, we together can all make the world a better place to be. If we stop saying, "Me Me Me", and start saying, "Us Us Us," or say "We" instead of "I" our team would be a First Team. A Team second to none. A team that would change the world and make the best BETTER.

Our hearts tell us which is right and which is wrong. That is the Holy Spirit within us, guiding us. The Teacher, teaching. If we listen we can always make the best BETTER.

Thank you for joining me. God Bless You.

And always remember, JESUS LOVES YOU!

River,

Las Vegas, Nevada

Sunday, 1 June 2008

Tags: 4-H Clubs, AOL, Royal Guardsmen, Snoopy vs The Red Baron, GMC, First Team, Black Horse, Fallen Soldiers, America, God, Jesus Christ, Christianity, Saint Augustine

Memorial Day

Tue, 27 May 2008 23:46:03 GMT

I wasn't able to use a computer on Memorial Day. Since I had to work and was staying at a motel on the other side of town, I'll make my entry today. Nor was I able to go home to New York and visit the graves of loved ones there. From the distance, the memories are close.

Our fallen soldiers shall not be forgotten.

Since I only have a few minutes on the computer, I think I'll borrow something from Wanda's Kitchen from the sidebar on the left. It says something like what I would have said had I more time.

The Battle of the Flag

And something from Scouts of America. The Boy Scouts of America and the Girl Scouts of America have continued the tradition of making America's children grow into men and women of ethical standards. They have helped in developing our nation's children into fine adults.

River's Jukebox

God Bless America

Kate Smith: God Bless America

(You are showing your age if you remember Kate Smith)

Thank You for Joining Me. God Bless You!

And Always Remember, JESUS LOVES YOU!

River

Las Vegas, Nevada

Tuesday, 27 May 2008

Tags: Memorial Day, Fallen Soldiers, God Bless America, Battle of the Flag, God, Jesus, Christianity, Boy Scouts of America,Girl Scouts of America, Kate Smith

Armed Forces Day

Sat, 17 May 2008 16:05:24 GMT

17 May 2008

Today is a day of honor for those who have served. Freedom is not free. Many have paid the price with their lives or limb to ensure that Democracy stands. The fallen soldiers shall never be forgotten. Let us pray for those who are today in battle. We pray for all of those brave ones who fight for our liberty and the freedom of others with the courage of being America's Best. God Bless all of the men and women of our Armed Forces. For those who stand in harms way to assure liberty, our prayers are with you. You are America's Best.

America's Best

Armed Forces Day

Taps

Fulfill the Dream (Graphic Viewer Beware)

JFK Speech Fulfill the Dream

Let Every Nation Know...

Rangers in Nam

Fighting Soldiers From The Sky

SSgt. Barry Sadler

The Ballad of the Green Berets

I'm The Lucky One

The Soldier's Creed

"Let every nation know.... that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of Liberty." JFK

Tags: Armed Forces Day, Green Berets, SSGT Barry Sadler, JFK, Liberty, Freedom, Democracy

There Is A Time for Everything

Fri, 16 May 2008 00:48:08 GMT

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 KJV

Thanks for joining me. God Bless You.

And always remember, JESUS LOVES YOU!

River

Las Vegas, Nevada

Thursday, 15 May 2008

Tags: A Time for Everything, Ecclesiastes, The Old Testament, King James Version, Holy Bible, God, Jesus, Christianity, Faith,

The Beginning of a Personal Crisis: Part II

Mon, 12 May 2008 03:59:55 GMT

River Organization: The Alpha

Chapter I

The Beginning of a Personal Crisis: Part II (Conclusion)

(Please read Part I first; found in the previous entry below.)

The plane touched down in New York some five and a half hours later. It was only 1 degree when the plane landed in New York. It was 57 degrees when I had left Las Vegas. Although I was wearing a trench coat with a wool liner over a three-piece business suit I was freezing. I hadn’t been in New York in the winter months in ten years. By the time I had arrived in New York in the middle of the night and received my rental car, I had received a number of phone calls from surviving family members who were waiting up and inviting me to stay with them. I had lost 14 members of my family over the decade since I had lived in Las Vegas. Family was precious to me. It was a difficult decision, since I wanted to be with family, and I knew they wanted to be with me, but I had decided to get a hotel room. I knew that I was the executor of the estate and I knew I would need the private time to pour over the mountain of paperwork I knew I would soon be faced with.

In the morning, I went directly to the funeral home and met with the director of the funeral home and some members of my family. In addition to making the funeral arrangements, selecting the casket and paying for the initial upfront costs required I informed the director that I insisted on a full military-honors funeral. The director informed me that I needed to present the deceased’s military discharge papers in order for the honor guards to perform a military funeral. That was understandable. But it was also a nightmare throwing a monkey wrench into my plans to coordinate the other things I needed to do in order to conduct my responsibilities the deceased had assigned me. I did not know where those DD 214 (discharge papers) were. I didn’t have a clue, and I had a number of estate beneficiaries I needed to locate and did not know where they resided. Tracking them down would be a time consuming event. I demanded that a full military honors funeral take place with no excuses and no exceptions. The funeral would not go forward until that was arranged, I insisted, the combat soldier deserved military honors. A funeral was not something which could be undone once done.

I was faced with these two tasks, finding the DD 214 and locating relatives in time for the funeral less than 12 hours off the plane.

Then I was off to the estate attorney’s office where I announced the situation at hand. This estate attorney, I had selected out of being placed in a time is of the essence situation several years earlier when my relative and friend was in ICU for a different life-threatening situation in which he was not expected to survive, but did.

The estate attorney had never been changed since that time and the Will had never been changed either. That is something of which I must place most of the blame upon myself. The attorney read the Will to me and informed me I was responsible, as estate executor, to pay all estate debt with my own funds. (Something I learned much later to be inaccurate after pouring through the New York State Law Library via my computer in Nevada and the fact that the Will clearly stated that I should not be, for any reason, held personally responsible to pay for any portion of the estate’s debt. In addition, if the estate beneficiaries could not make a peaceful decision on the distribution of assets in category as he chose for his love ones to select from, then I was empowered to make those fair and equitable decisions.) This attorney drafted the Will. It is his own language which he used and which was put into the Will. Now several years later I discover that language was defective. And the attorney was not qualified to handle estates. Furthermore, I should have had the hindsight of advising that the Will be changed to a Living Trust once the danger had pass of that time of urgency and I had failed to do so. Or at least, I should have raised the discussion and consideration thereof. But folks, talking to someone about their Will isn’t all that easy.

Needless to say, I had my hands full during this time period of unexpected events which although I knew would eventually arrive, I was still unprepared for. I called work in Las Vegas and ask that my paycheck and one-week vacation pay be sent directly to one of my New York banks. A week later, I needed yet another week’s vacation pay to be sent. I had extended my stay in New York from a planned three or four day stay to a week and then two weeks. Although I had twenty-thousand dollar credit lines on credit cards with zero balances, of which I then used for flights, rental car, hotel room, and changes of those due to an extended stay and such, I also had my personal bills needing to be paid in Nevada. So I needed money placed into my checking account so that I could handle those obligations while in New York without tapping into my savings or investments. I had now used up two of the three weeks vacation time I had coming in pay in order to manage my personal affairs while dealing with the estate affairs.

I hunted for the DD 214 or discharge papers which was most paramount on my mind in order for the military honors to be performed for one whom so deserved it. I was also busy, as the estate attorney was in trying to locate the missing relatives who needed to be found.

I hadn’t driven in snow for more than a decade, now I was navigating and working about in weather I personally wouldn’t care if I ever saw again.

Eventually, everybody was found that needed to be found. The military performed the funeral service without the documents needed based on numerous personal testimony, and internal investigations to the fact of evidence of service. After the fact, I provided the funeral home with documents needed once I had found them with the signature of General Westmoreland, Army commander of U.S. forces in Nam, to forward to the Honor Guard. So the first two priorities were achieved and along with the funeral being behind me, I could move forward into the affairs of the estate.

The stress was phenomenal, yet now I had to dig into the estate stuff and in the two weeks I managed to administer the things I needed to get done, and assign to-do lists for those in New York volunteering to help. I had gathered what I needed in order to return to Las Vegas and handle the estate from there. But managing an estate nearly three-thousand miles away is not something I would recommend to anyone to endure.

From that point on I had a miserable time trying to conduct the things I needed to get done while back home in Las Vegas. I immediately purchased the headstone and arranged for the military plaque to be affixed to it. Of course, the memorial company couldn’t perform the installation until after the ground thawed in New York. In the meantime, once weather conditions were favorable, I had them recondition other headstones in the family grave site. Of which, the memorial company sent me photos of the before and after work which I found satisfactory. Friends and relatives in New York verified everything done on the part of the memorial company was satisfactory, so I was relieved this was done and over with less something happen to me.

But dealing with the idiots at banks and attorneys and creditors and utility companies and so forth in which I had to deal with drained me both physically and mentally. It was not only time consuming it was down right frustrating. Often I had to repeat the minutest details. Simple things like the mailing address procedures for them to send estate mail to me had to be repeated again and again. With 10,000 people a month who are moving into Vegas and 5,000 people moving out each month the postal workers are bald, even the women, from pulling their hair out. In Vegas, people move in, move up, move down and move out, constantly. It is not Hometown America, where the postal workers know everybody on the street.

It seemed some people I had to communicate with didn’t even know how to use C/O (in Care Of) when addressing envelopes to me on estate matters. Even after I had told them it was imperative that they did so. So, some vital mail was not reaching me, sometimes lost and sometimes sent back undelivered. Sometimes we have to work if a computer program doesn’t allow enough space for proper addressing, so handwrite the address in then, is how I replied. Another thing, I demanded that all communications be in writing. I would not take or make telephone calls, except for limited cases, for doing so I could not keep the legal records I may later need as proof to support any claims I may have needed to make on behalf of the estate. Many of those I had to deal with were reluctant to place things in writing and that in and of itself raised red flags in my mind. Also, I was extremely busy running five departments once I had returned to work and didn’t have the time to be constantly interrupted. I had been gone for two week. I was buried trying to catch up. My work load was increasing and so was the workload of my boss.

My immediate boss in the used car department; the used-car manager and used-car buyer had recently been promoted to General Sales Manager, in addition to his previous positions. So this created additional work loads for both of us. We worked together like a machine, as he would often say. But that machine was now running dry of oil and lubrication and was heating up magnificently. It was about to overheat and breakdown because of the intense friction. As it was, a number of beneficiaries of the estate constantly contacted me during work hours to ask me questions or provide me with information I needed on developments back in New York. This was just something which was necessary and couldn’t be helped. But nevertheless, it made it extremely difficult to manage the estate from nearly 3,000 miles away.

For the most part, I relied on email and saw no reason why anyone I had to deal with on the business end of the estate couldn’t use email to communicate as well. Except for exceptional cases, such as sending billing statements, or documents needing signing, emailing correspondence was an effective way to communicate and quite timely. It was also an effective way to keep records. However some I had to deal with didn’t want to cooperate on any of the methods of conducting estate business that I had suggested. This frustrated me to no end.

I was now having all of my free time away from my job, nights and on weekends, consumed with handling estate affairs. Sometimes it was necessary to interrupt my work to handle estate affairs during week day business hours in New York, and this only put me farther behind on the job.

I could not and would not betray the trust that the one who chose me for his estate executor had in me. Therefore I could not turn the administration of the estate over to someone else. The next best thing to do then was to leave my job and finish and settle the estate before returning to it. It was an unfortunate decision and quite frankly made while under phenomenal pressure and during such stressful activities. I later greatly regretted the decision. Not only did I regret it, I carried a huge amount of guilt on my shoulders since leaving the “A Company” would dump a phenomenal workload on to those I had left behind. These were people who trusted me and who was part of a very special team.

I was burned out even before going to New York. I could not recover with the additional burden of the estate. I could have handled my multiple positions on my job with no problem, but I could handle no more. If I had spread my three weeks vacation time throughout the year, taking a vacation at the end of every four-month period, and enjoying some serious R&R, I could have easily recovered each stage of exhaustion.

The workload of the estate sent me over the edge. But it wasn’t something anyone could do anything about. No one was directly to blame for the situation which felt like a Mega-Tsunami which hit me with the full force of waves of destruction that led to financial disaster. So, unfortunately, I gave up my job. My entire disposition had changed for the worst and I was becoming someone I did not want to be. I was no longer meek. My attitude was sour. In fact there was nothing meek about me….

I not only left behind a great career, I left behind a great team and great friends. The only thing that was on my mind was getting that estate settled and getting it settled exactly as the war hero had instructed me to settle it, no excuses and no exceptions. And that is exactly what I had intended on doing.

Thank You For Joining Me & God Bless You.

And Always Remember, JESUS LOVES YOU!

River

Las Vegas, Nevada

Sunday, 11 May 2008

Tags: Homelessness, Financial Crisis, Personal Crisis, Estate Executor, God, Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit, Faith, Christianity

The Beginning of a Personal Crisis: Part I

Mon, 12 May 2008 01:22:45 GMT

River Organization: The Alpha

Chapter I

The Beginning of a Personal Crisis: Part I

I am going to fast forward here in my journal in order to express a solution for a change. My readers will temporarily miss much of the nuts & bolts descriptions of the events which brought me to the conclusion of the need for the River Organization; however I’ll revert back to those experiences in future postings.

I’ll pause here (or rewind) only long enough to give my readers a picture or glimpse of what I was doing before and during the downward spiral of my own financial annihilation. It will take at least a couple of entries in order to complete this. It is something I had desired to have remained private, yet with time to contemplate I felt that if my readers did not know where I was coming from, then they could not know where I was going.

Most financial advisors recommend that for personal financial security, a person has from three to six months worth of salary in liquid assets in order to offset a personal crisis such as a loss of employment. I had over three times that amount. If the events which follows had not occurred I would have been able to sustain myself, unemployed, for up to three years without any outside income before my personal finances were totally evaporated.

I did not simply just jump off the hobo train and join the Bums “R” Us club of being homeless.

I was working for a large Nevada automobile dealership; I’ll call “A Company”, in which I was a manager supervising in five different departments at the same time. The positions I held in those departments were lease manager, assistant used-car manager, recon manager (Reconditioning), New-car operations manager, and porter supervisor. I also assisted security personnel when problems needed addressing when security supervisors were not available; although security was not part of my job description within the five departments I actively supervised simultaneously.

My job duties required me to provide my attention over a massive new & used car lot consisting of several acres in size. I would decide which trade-in vehicles would be wholesaled or reconditioned for retail. I would work with numerous vendors and decide which reconditioning repairs would be made on each retail unit. I would write Repair Orders (RO) and approve or reject mechanical repairs recommended by technicians. There were many other duties I performed simultaneously; these are a just a brief few. However, from A-Z, I touched each and every vehicle, new & used which came onto the lot for resale and prepared its destination in the dealership. The entire dealership inventory, consisting of thousands of vehicles, was my responsibility and under my supervision.

The privately-owned family of dealerships was a multi-line auto group. To give an indication of the volume of business, the GMC-Pontiac-Buick store alone shattered sales records across the country. The Pontiac store was the number one selling Trans Am dealership in the world seven years in a row. At the time, three of the six Nevada (West Region) General Motors World-Class Technicians worked for the dealership. One was one of my four used-car technicians, the other two worked as service technicians in our service department. Another was based in Northern Nevada and the remaining two were instructors who taught the courses at local universities and colleges. World-Class Technician status is only achieved after completing 8 of 9 Master Technicians Certifications along with other requirements. It is the elite of the elite. Today only 10 such World-Class Technicians exist in the state of Nevada. The achievement of a single Master Technician Certification is of itself a Mark of Excellence in achievements. I illustrate this simply to show, as a team, we were second to none and together we worked like a machine. If there was a problem needing solving, our team could solve it, bar none.

In the three years preceding unemployment and eventually homelessness I had paid approximately $15,000 per year in taxes.

It was common for me to work an eighty, ninety or more hour work week. A 16-hour or more work day was typical for me. Yet I had a fringe benefit uncommon for managers in the car business. I had Saturdays and Sundays off. Occasionally I would work on my days off when I needed to catch up on my workload. Many times I had stayed all night on Friday nights, with the business closed, in order to clean off the work on my desk and finish it so that on Monday mornings I could get a fresh start with nothing buried or forgotten in some messy pile of papers. That meant I had often worked twenty-four hours straight, going into my weekend.

On weekends, after resting, I would continue my religious studies and I would often write documents into my computer files of my intentions of helping the poor once I retired and how I was going to help them. I have volumes of those ideas stored. Those volumes have grown since then, of course. At that time I had planned on retiring in three to four years. When I say “retire” I mean to withdraw from the over forty-hour work week and do something less stressful and more meaningful for the needy. My plans were to serve God and do the things He tells us in the Bible to do. During this time I wasn’t thinking about the homeless per say, or at least exclusively. Although helping the homeless was part of my future agenda, my focus was on hunger. World hunger particularly, was on my mind. Hunger is an evil thing. Since I was a child, I could never understand why a single person should ever experience hunger, here in the United States or anywhere in the world. There is simply no excuse for hunger.

I had no clue that I myself would ever become homeless. I can only attribute the things I wrote down in my files, without having a real inside knowledge of the actual situation occurring in the lives and on the streets of the needy, to the Holy Spirit. The ideas came from Him through me. I listened and I responded. That is the only way I can explain it.

A death in my family in New York, in which I was the executor of the estate, interrupted my career as a manager in the automobile business.

I flew to New York, after receiving the call while I was at work, that the veteran U.S. Army combat soldier who had served with the First Team, Black Horse Unit, was in grave condition in the ICU. Southwest Airlines had done an extraordinary job and worked diligently in order to secure me an emergency flight out of Las Vegas as quickly as possible. It was Christmas season, so that compounded the situation for finding an available seat. I was hopeful I could make it to New York in time to be at his bedside before the Lord took him. But the call came in just before I boarded the plane that he had passed. There were a number of questions the family members needed to know, until I arrived in New York, in handling the arrangements of the war veteran, and I directed them with the answers they needed before boarding the plane. Moments later, the plane lifted off from McCarran International Airport on a flight path toward New York.

Thank You For Joining Me and God Bless You.

And Always Remember, JESUS LOVES YOU!

River

Las Vegas, Nevada

Sunday, 11 May 2008

Tags: Homelessness, My Personal Story, Personal Crisis, Holy Spirit, God, Jesus, First Team, Black Horse, Combat Soldier, War Hero, Faith, Going Home

Happy Mother's Day

Sun, 11 May 2008 17:43:54 GMT

Happy Mother's Day, Ladies!

NYC Sees a Decrease in Homelessness?

Wed, 07 May 2008 04:24:33 GMT

According to a recent New York Times article there is a decrease of the homeless population in the city. But the readers, the people who live there seem to dispute the figures. The comments to the article make more sense than the content of the article.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/city-sees-drop-in-homeless-population/?hp

Tags: Homelessness, NYC, Homeless Counting, Social Services

Down to the River to Pray

Fri, 02 May 2008 19:06:47 GMT

EVERYDAY IS A GOOD DAY TO PRAY.

Alison Krauss sings it so beautifully we can't help but follow.

Morning Praying:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=x87RKXETBEk&feature=related

Afternoon Praying:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=F1FQqSGxBso&feature=related

Evening Praying:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=L3D-HmjzFy0

As I went down in the river to pray
Studying about that good ol' way
And who shall wear the robe & crown?
Good Lord show me the way

O brothers let's go down
Let's go down, come on down
Come on brothers, let's go down
Down in the river to pray

As I went down in the river to pray
Studying about that good ol' way
And who shall wear the starry crown?
Good Lord show me the way

O mothers let's go down
Let's go down, come on down
Come on mothers let's go down
Down in the river to pray

As I went down in the river to pray
Studying about that good ol' way
And who shall wear the starry crown?
Good Lord show me the way

O fathers let's go down, let's go down, come on down,
Come on fathers, let's go down
Down in the river to pray

Thank you for joining me. God Bless You.

And always remember, JESUS LOVES YOU!

River

Las Vegas, Nevada

Tags: Praying, Christianity, God, Jesus Christ, Alison Krauss, Religious Songs