How Do You Encourage Someone in Jail?

Sunday October 18, 1992

By 7:30 we can't stay in bed any longer. We are all up for a cereal breakfast. The boys shower and entertain themselves while I get ready. Frank goes to Newbury Park.

Gary and Maria come to get the boys about 11 a.m. They stay to visit a couple of hours. I feel pretty good but still have no appetite. I eat very little. More phone calls. I write a letter to my cousin Shirley in Sacramento who is incarcerated due to drunk driving for 3 months. I try to give her words of encouragement. It's really terrible for her there.

Frank comes home to take me out to dinner at Coco's. I eat very little, feel we wasted money. The dinner doesn't set well. I don't feel good and fall asleep at 8 p.m. on the couch.

Mom was a wise woman and was someone her friends and family often turned to for advice. However, her cousin Shirley seemed unable to conquer her alcoholism and after several DWIs was finally arrested. I can't even imagine how depressing that would be to spend 90 days in jail. About the only good thing about it is that no alcohol is served and I believe they do have AA meetings there. I wish I could have read Mom's letter to her cousin Shirley.

I guess it's a good thing that Mom now has no appetite since eating anything makes her sick. I wonder if she gained weight on the cruise like most people do. It's time to stop eating out in restaurants and stick to a bland diet at home.

Cousin Shirley Is Arrested

Thursday September 24, 1992

I slept like a baby. I feel great today. Frank is at class so I walk alone in the morning. After dinner we go see Gary & Maria.

I receive a call from Raymond, a young man who lives with Shirley. He tells me Shirley is in confinement. She was arrested for drunk driving. She'll get out in December. She's been there 2 weeks and wants me to write. Raymond says he loves Shirley and wants to marry her. Raymond is about 25.

We call Paul, Phil and Dolores today to ask them to call their grandfather before his surgery tomrrow.

Wow, I knew Cousin Shirley, pictured above on the left with her family, was an alcoholic, but I never knew she spent time in jail. This obviously was not her first offense for drunk driving if she was given a 3-month sentence. It must have been horrible for her! But not so horrible that she would give up alcohol. She got drunk the night of Mom's funeral and when we went to breakfast the next morning, she was a mess. Her disease killed her a year after Mom passed away. So sad, she was even younger than Mom, maybe 50. Her boyfriend is only 25? Very strange. Maybe they are drinking buddies.