Ugh. Nother ‘rains and pours’ post incoming, but something big just happened the other day, and I find myself back in a state of anxiety because of it. Sorry guys, but this is like…just very real. It’s family related and personal, but at the same time, sharing when something major like this goes on even with a bunch of weirdoes (in an endearing way) like you all just kind of helps me cope with uncertain things. So I’ll start with some good news, an update on the possibility of my fiance coming down with covid;
So my fiance is clear of covid symptoms, which is good. They don’t have formal tests in Mindanao, but it’s been nearly 14 days and she’s been monitoring her temperature and symptoms closely and seems to be alright. That front is really good, and while we’re still aggravated that covid is keeping us apart physically, we’re just trying to look forward to the day when she and I can finally live together.
Now for the stuff that gets real. On Wednesday night we had some family drama. My cousin was stabbed by his sister’s crazy drug-addled ex-husband. There is a report of it in the news, not sure if I’m allowed to put links to news articles like that in here so I won’t for now, but yeah, yesterday was a full on internet manhunt for the son of a word-that’s-too-strong-but-more-properly-exemplifies-my-feelings. Spent the day posting his mug everywhere I could think of to find if people had seen him because the cops in the town it happened in are useless, all while checking in constantly to see if my cousin was okay. He’s out of death’s line of sight, but they’re still unsure about his arm - a major artery was stabbed and they couldn’t get blood flowing back to his arm, so they’re thinking he might need to be amputated. We’re really hoping it doesn’t come to that. Couple that with the fact that he’s a mechanic, it would devastate his life.
The coward who attacked him wound up turning himself in. Probably wanted the protection of the ‘justice system’ when he realized my entire extended family was gearing up to look for him themselves. He sent all sorts of threatening messages to my family on facebook, saying he was going to ‘come for the rest of the family’ and ‘finish the job’. Pretty huge idiot considering that evidence will be used against him when his court day comes. We’re still nervous that he won’t get a long enough sentence or could walk free on the insanity clause because of Iowa’s extremely lax punishments on the mentally ill (he has bipolar disorder and paranoid schizophrenia - neither of which he medicates I might add and refuses to do so at any time he’s given the choice). He has a history of various abuses. He’s sold the food stamps that were meant for his children to be able to eat for crack before (we were none too happy with him and the cousin he was married to and their 4 children went to live with my aunt for a time because of this particular incident), beaten my cousin and threatened her with a gun, harassed my aunt at her struggling bakery and drove business away on multiple occasions, and now he’s actually attempted to murder another cousin of mine. He was aiming for the heart, and might have succeeded if my cousin wasn’t in his car and guarding really well. We’re nervous because we can’t find the weapon he used and think he may have chucked it into the river, and know that the investigators won’t even attempt to look for it, so we can’t include the attempted murder charges unless we find that or some other admission of guilt. While he threatened the family on Facebook, his wording only seems to imply and not confirm that he attacked my cousin, which probably won’t hold up in a court in Iowa, let alone Lee County where it happened.
If he is released or has a reduced sentence, my family will not know peace of mind. And the victim here is not just my cousin he stabbed (though he’s pretty majorly the victim since he was literally stabbed and his life possibly altered if they can’t return blood flow to his hand soon), but my cousin who was once married to him and her 4 kids who have to live with the shame of his actions. Like, we don’t blame them for it at all, but you know how hard it is to convince someone that the sins of the father are not the sins of the child, the spouse, etc.
I want to see that monster go away for good. A decade and a half of pain. We’ve given him every chance to change his ways, far more than what was reasonable to give someone as bad as him. There’s this mixture of anxiety, sorrow, and seething rage I have over this whole thing, and I actually had an adrenaline rush in anger when I heard about the stabbing.
through it.