[Boatanchors] OT: Noelle clarification & background

[Michael]

First a little clarification on Noelle’s meds.  As mentioned, her assistance
has been significantly reduced due to her being terminal.  This is partially
compensated for by some of the pharmaceutical companies stepping up with
freebies to cover the more expensive meds.  (This is a write off for them,
possibly advertising or charitable donation but I’m not sure.)  Due to her
situation, her docs have little to no choice as to what meds to prescribe
and she has little to no choice but to accept what’s available.  This is not
the situation we had last year but the health care reform bill wasn’t fully
in effect last year either.

 

>From some of the personal email I’ve received, it would appear some folks
don’t know the background against which the previous post was made – i.e.,
Noelle’s history in my life.

 

In 1983, I had to go to a foster home to work on their computer.  While I
was there, I saw this absolutely beautiful and absolutely terrified little
girl who’d just been placed.  She’d been yanked out of an abusive household
(She was 5 years old and not virgin.  Does that say enough about how
abusive?) and her family arrested.  Selfsame family put her up for adoption,
denying any claim to her or for her welfare.  Anyway, after I was finished
with the computer, I went over to her, sat down on the floor and talked to
her.  She didn’t answer but she was listening so I told her about myself and
what I did and all kinds of other basic small talk.  

 

The following day, I started the paperwork to adopt her as a single parent
(wife #1 and I were working out the details of our divorce at the time.)
which lead to the most intense background check imaginable.  You think
military & government background checks are bad?  Try adopting a very pretty
5 year old girl who has already been through hell as a late 30s male going
through a divorce so adopting as a single parent.   It took two years and
every opportunity I had during that time I was at the foster home to see
Noelle.  It didn’t take long for her to learn that she could not only speak
but speak her mind without being punished for doing so.  Shortly after that,
she learned my lap was truly a Safe Place, the first she’d ever known.  She
learned a lot of other cool things and the foster parents were reporting
everything back to Child Welfare.  The vice cops I knew also gave me
positive marks as did even my 1st wife, the one from whom I was slowly
becoming divorced.  

 

When I was finally able to bring her home, she came to live with me aboard
Stardancer, my 42’ houseboat.  The live-aboard community was small, close
and tight with everyone looking out for everyone else.  I knew this and that
there was no place safer for her with the kind of “community watch” that
existed there.  I also knew the people at this particular marina and they
knew that Noelle was coming, in part because each and every one of them had
been interviewed as well.  The end result was that Noelle went from having a
terribly abusive family to a loving and caring group of uncles, aunts,
brothers, sisters & cousins.  

 

Noelle was terrified of big dogs (I won’t go into why.) and I had a couple
of mixed breed brothers who went 60 pounds each.  Their reaction to her was
“Step aside, hairless two-foot.  This is our puppy and we’ll take it from
here.”  They did, too, as her teachers (kinda sorta), bodyguards and
friends.  

 

At the time, I had an embarrassingly large bit of money saved up from a
couple sideline businesses I had running.  (It was large enough I could have
lived comfortably on the interest alone.)  As a result, Noelle was
homeschooled and had everything she needed.  Wanted was subject to
negotiation but needed was automatic.  Every penny of that savings went to
cover those needs, her education and related items.  She was the best
investment I could have ever made, bar none.  

 

Fast forward through going to work with me on occasion when she simply did
not want to be away from me, field trips taking photos of abandonments and
reportedly haunted places, the first time she – or the dogs – saw a cow,
marriage, suffering a trauma that caused her to lose her first child unborn
and any hope of having more (The perpetrator was sentenced to life plus 20
with no chance of parole.), tours of both medical and psych facilities as a
result, going to school for criminal forensics and other events that were
part of Noelle’s life both with me and after she moved away.  We were and
are father & daughter, best friends forever, confidantes who knew more about
each other than our respective doctors do & probably should and the
spiritual link between us is such that a few have called us soul mates.  And
on occasion we were like a couple of ferrets.  (When a couple of ferrets are
together, what one doesn’t think of to get into mischief the other will.
They are sufficient evidence that absolutely nothing is childproof.)  I can
go for hours with Noelle-stories but I don’t want to push my luck here.

 

The last time I saw Noelle was when I came here.  All of the photos from
that visit as well as a huge quantity of other items never made it to
Hawaii.  One bag that had all of that in it went adrift at LAX and was never
found.  I have one photo which she sent me after much begging & pleading but
is from a couple years prior to that last meeting.  She made me promise not
to show it to anyone else so I don’t.  OTOH, I’ve been building a 3D graphic
model of her which she doesn’t mind me passing around once it’s finished.
It’s not her so she’s cool with it.  The reason it’s taking so long is that
I want it to be dead on accurate.  

 

To say that she is my universe and all that is in it would be a gross
understatement.  I can  not imagine a world without her in it and I have no
clue what I’ll do without her.  

 

This went a bit longer than planned for which I apologize.  Any comments &
questions 
 please go to email.  Thank you for your indulgence.

 

And back to the general topics at hand.

 

Best Regards,

 

Michael, K3MXO, CBLA #6, BL01hx15np24 ... or there abouts  

By doing just a little every day, I can gradually let a task completely
overwhelm me.

 
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Hiki Nô!