September 27, 2012 Greetings My Friend, I have been to MI and talked to a Dr. about my lack of energy. He had put me on B vitamins. As we moved to VA and moved again I got away from taking my B vitamins. He told me to start taking them again and I have and I am seeing more of my energy level come back. B comes to stay at our house when we leave for our trips. She feeds the animals and medicates the cat that has seizures for us. She also has fun cleaning around our house. She cleans out the air filters and washes the windows. She doesn’t have to do these things but she has fun. As we have settled into our new home B has been here so much that this house is also hers. I love her making herself at home when she is here. B’s life has been not one of keeping a pretty home, having money to fuss with a house. She likes working on cars and playing around with mechanical type things more than fussing with a house. When B comes out I start telling her of the new things and telling her she needs to tell me how much she likes the new things that have been done. I tell her that is what we women do. She laughs at me and then tells me that she likes the improvements. B’s son J has not worked as of yet. He has helped Junior fix on our house and we pay him some money. B’s son has grown up in poverty. He was home schooled and he hasn’t mingled much with other kids or people. He is taking his GED classes and getting his driver’s license so he can get a job. I want to tell J about the fact that both Junior and I grew up poor. We know where he is at both financially and emotionally to some extent. Both Junior and I have overcome our days of poverty. We have lived the middle class life with the types of income we were able to make. I tell him on occasion that we overcame the days of poverty. We have had a financially secure adult life. Our goal is to step beside B and J and help them where we can. We don’t just hand them money we have them help us and we pay for their services. We pay B to watch our animals while we are gone. When Junior can afford to have J over he has him come by and help him with the renovating. J earns money and he is learning a few skills as well. J grew up with no dad in the home so Junior is showing J the things dad’s generally teach their young ones. Junior also fusses at J if he is taking too many smoke breaks. He is trying to teach J how to work. I love B so much. She and I are silly together. We laugh. B understands my lack of energy since she has none due to health issues. She often tells me to sit down when I have pushed myself too far. We enjoy running errands and going to the doctor appointments we have. Since I can’t drive due to my black outs B does the driving. Her car is not dependable so she drives our cars. B is so comfortable in our home and that makes me so happy. She sometimes will cook for us and.sometimes I cook. She has her things she enjoys doing, keeping the air purifiers filter clean, washing windows and she loves cooking. She loves teaching me how be a southern cook. I am thrilled she feels so comfortable in our home. Junior and I tend to let her do what she has a need or desire to do. The only thing we want is for her to watch our pets so anything extra is nice. I am grateful for an opportunity to help B and her son out where I can and as always we give money to them sparingly, we give them money for what services they give us. We have learned to not just hand people money. Most people don’t learn anything when you give them money. Frankly I have found that some poor people expect me to just hand them what they want and they don’t want to work for their money. I found that out with our old neighbors. The first thing they started off with when we met them is to ask for their child. He was always had something wrong and needed medication. We usually didn’t give them money but would buy the medicine, food or whatever. Junior rarely will give money out right. When he saw J he asked him to work with him and he would earn money. Now we could not afford the going rate but we paid him what we could afford and he agreed. In the process J learned how to do some electrical work, build things and his skill level is better at this point. B has become a very good friend to me. She helps me and I help her when and where I can. We run around together. We joke and we have a ton of fun. We both are helping the other one out where we can. She has been with me as I have struggled through depression. She helps me keep my house nice. I don’t expect her to but she likes putzing around my house and I enjoy the fruits of her labor. I love that we are able to help the other one out. As I continue to look at this relationship I realize that I may have started helping her out but in the process we have become good friends who are about as different as day and night and well we love and respect each other. My goal at this point in my life is to ask God where He wants me to be, who He wants me to be a friend to and attempt to be who God wants me to be. May God bless you and keep you, make His face to shine upon you. Love Janet