Visiting Mary at North Homes

As Christmas 2008 neared, the County offered to reimburse Karen and me for our mileage to Grand Rapids to visit Mary — a 500 mile round trip. This was the first time they had offered us something like this, and although a nice gesture on their part, I thought it was odd that they felt they had to create a work-around to a problem that could have been avoided if they had placed Mary closer to her home in the first place, like she and I had asked them to do.

I didn't take their reimbursement, but I did visit Mary, and I took Josie and Grace with me. Josie was home for Christmas, and the three girls hadn't been together in a long time. Mary didn't know her sisters were coming, and Josie and Grace hid behind a couch in the visiting room and then jumped out when Mary entered the room. Mary was extremely glad to see them. It was a nice surprise for her and a delight for me to see all three of my daughters together again.

After Christmas, Mary moved again. This time from the North Homes shelter to their secure unit. I didn't know about this until I talked to the North Homes staff one afternoon. Mary's workers weren't telling me much of anything at this point — I was being kept out of the loop. But I always told them and the others on the team whatever I found out about Mary. They may have already known most of this, and I might have only been telling them that I knew it too — that, in fact, I wasn't out of the loop yet.