My brother my brother, how ?
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Well, backstory first: My younger brother is 7 years younger than me...he was always a ne'er do well on the surface...mooching off my parents until their death and then letting his addictions and scamming overwhelm him..he ended up homeless, gave up his dogs on the side of the road where some good Samaritan took them in and then found me - we took his dogs as a condition of his going to rehab, for which i arranged and paid for both, the rehab and the for the volunteer Good Samaritans to transport those dogs to us from Florida. He made it through 4 months of the 1 year rehab i got him into...He was speed balling Meth and Fentanyl multiple times a day when he landed in a hospital in South Florida and i was able to convince him to go to rehab...
He was kicked out over what he claimed was innocuous activity AND i knew that he was again heading down the wrong path but i tried to support him..so i fronted him for getting on his feet. He first got into a hostel, then got a job, a decent job paying like 25$ /hour in a bakery...and he started slowly paying us back...moved into a cheap apt 2 mos after that and he was steadfast about being and staying clean. Problem was ( for him ) he was making A LOT of money dealing and scamming back in the day and ' only ' 1k per week now.
Then he just fell off the map. And just like that one day a month or so later a Venmo of like $500.00 showed up and then a picture of a stack of cash on a bed and a message, ' good haul today, i owe you a lot, you'll get more soon, please send me a pic of my dogs '...the texts and pics were from a burner phone with a SC exchange...he owes me and my wife well over 10K for everything.
Today, after a year and two days of ghosting, our daughter asked me when i Googled him last...turns out he is safe and sound in the custody of the Nassau County Florida Sherrifs Office on no less than 10 counts of Bank,Check and Identity theft and Fraud and also has warrants in at least 9 other states...the bond is 300K for FLA.
i think our other brother put it best this morning " Prolific ! And to think we always thought of him as an underachiever "
The ' I am my Brother's Keeper ' part of me wants to make sure he is ok...has commissary money....the pragmatist ( and my wife ) say " you know hes ' safe ' in the system and realistically, hes facing 15-25 yrs for the Florida charges ONLY, not counting what other states want him for what " he is not your responsibility anymore...this is the same kid i used to protect from bullies and shit and now he is lost...
fucking sad...
thanks for listening
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Oh brother !
Oh brother !
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that's hard. So sorry for
that's hard. So sorry for this. I understand the tough love that needs to be shown. It ain't easy. you are a good brother. Never forget that
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Sorry to hear.
Sorry to hear. Just a head up about the commissary deal:
My sister volunteered with foster youth and became a 'big Sister' for Z. Helped him over the years since he was a baby, weekly visits, coordinated with his social worker, funded educational programs and activities, etc.
He joined a gang and turned 18 this year, now sitting in jail for multiple offenses including armed robbery.
My sis was devastated and sends money to his commissary fund - but it rarely reaches him because he gets shuttled to different jails because of his gang affiliation and behavior in jail. The jails keep that money and take a huge percentage for "processing fees" when it manages to get to him. It's a racket..
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That's tough. Sorry to hear
That's tough. Sorry to hear that and sounds like you went above and beyond trying to help him. Jail sucks but too many people who went down that road are dead. Hopefully, he will get clean, be rehabilitated, and out early on good behavior (and stay clean).
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I'm sorry that's how it is.
I'm sorry that's how it is. So fucking sad, you've done what you could, Mike.
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appreciate it all...
appreciate it all...
i am the oldest of 5 and i am now, for better or worse, the patriarch of what ever is left of a family
i was in 7th grade and he was in 1st or 2nd grade and i came on the bus and his glasses were all askew and his hair fucked up and he was crying...the kid behind him was picking on him and that kid was in 5th grade, a little younger than me. That was the last day i was able to ride the bus to school for the next year and a half until i graduated 8th grade and left catholic school. The bully that was picking on my brother learned that day what it was like to be bullied by someone older than them. And i was on my way to getting my first job to pay for the bus window i shattered with that kids forehead because my parents handed me the bill.
i can still see him , that day , pleading with me to help him...now i cannot
breaks my fucking heart
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Much love to you MikePA.
Much love to you MikePA.
choices
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This story reminds me of the
This story reminds me of the person I was in the 1990s, and renews my gratitude for having turned my life around.
He'll always be your kid brother, Mike, that's forever, but he's become something else now too. I hope he finds some peace in prison. It's rare, but some manage to.
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In The Jailhouse Now was
In The Jailhouse Now was performed by Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions in 1964.
In The Jailhouse Now is usually attributed to Jimmie Rodgers but his version of the song is an arrangement of an earlier song. Jailhouse Blues recorded by Whistler's Jug Band in 1924 is clearly a forerunner of the Rodgers song and itself is probably an arrangement of earlier vaudeville or minstrel show songs. Contemporary newspapers describe a duo called Marshall and Davis singing a song called He's In the Jail House Now in Philidelphia in 1919.
I had a friend named Ramblin' Bob
Who used to steal, gamble and rob
He thought he was the smartest guy in town
But I found out last Monday
That Bob got locked up Sunday
They've got him in the jailhouse way downtown
[Chorus]
He's in the jailhouse now, he's in the jailhouse now
I told him once or twice
To quit playing cards and shooting dice
He's in the jailhouse now
Oh-lay-ee-ee-ee, oh-dee-oh-dee-ee-ee
Ah-dee-oh-lay-ee-ee-dee-del-ee-dee, oh-lay-ee
http://www.deaddisc.com/songs/In_The_Jailhouse_Now.htm
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I would never recommend
I would never recommend paying for rehab for someone that usually never works. Tough love, they have to do it themselves or it will never work.
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what Dear Christopher said,
what Dear Christopher said, so much more kindly than me^^^
bad drugs are sooooooooo fucking bad
my heart aches for you and him, and dogos
you can't help him though and that's the hardest part