Audrey Part VIII

     I can tell by all the comments....NOT.... that you understood Barbara's letters about as much as I did!

     Barbara was found not guilty on the charge of murdering her mother.

     There were many, many more letters from Barbara.  They were very difficult to sort through.  With little reference and no dates on the letters, it was hard to make sense of all the rantings.

    

     I do know that Barbara was married at least 4 times.  She claimed at least one marriage was just to keep her off the streets.  In another marriage, she mentioned her husband paying her for different types of sex.   One of her husbands did drugs all the time, but only the kind you smoke, was her report to Audrey. (Because, hey, if you're only smoking drugs, then it's a perfectly acceptable thing to do.)  She claimed she was raped frequently.  On one of those occasions, it was by four different men.  She was raped in the hospital and in jail.  In Barbara's world, there was a rapist waiting around every corner and they all wanted her.

    Another recurring theme in the letters was her desperate plea for money.  The house, the one with all the antiques, part of it belonged to Barbara.  It seems the three of them (Audrey, her sister Virginia and Virginia's daughter, Barbara)were bequeathed the house from an Aunt Helen.

     After Virginia's death, Barbara begged Audrey to buy her share of the house from her.  They mutually agreed that the amount would be $15,000.  Audrey's lawyer, Debbie, was supposed to send the $15, 000. From the letters it seemed Barbara managed to get $2500 of it.  The other $12,500... I couldn't make heads or tales of what happened to it.

     When Audrey asked us to help her get her affairs in order, she wanted a new lawyer because she claimed her old lawyer, Debra, was a crook.  This may or may not have been true.  From what I could make of the letters, Barbara should have received the remaining $12, 500.  Barbara even wrote a letter to the legal society of Audrey's city asking for an investigation of Debra.  I am not sure a copy of the letter ever made it to the officials, but Audrey did have a copy of the letter Barbara threatened to send. 

     

     Barbara claimed she was destitute.  There were times she didn't have a roof over her head or food to eat.  Living in the Florida Keys, she was severely sunburned.  Her feet were blistered from walking and walking with no shoes.  She ate one cup of oatmeal a day for 2 months because she didn't have any money.  She may not have had money to eat, but she sure scraped it together to buy postage to send nasty letters to Audrey begging for money.  That $12,500 was the difference between life and death, according to Barbara.  

     We all know that someone with Barbara's track record wasn't going to get far with $12,500.

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     By the time I met Audrey, the letters from Barbara had stopped.  

     Now there was only talk about Barbara.  The house had been cleared and the contents sold.  Audrey wanted to make sure Barbara got her share.  It didn't matter that in one breath Audrey would recall Barbara's antics, marriages and drug abuse because in the next breath, she just had to find her.  Maybe there was some guilt on Audrey's part.  Maybe Audrey didn't send the money.  If she didn't, she had a reason. Who knows?  We don't what changed that now made Audrey want to give her the money.   We just know Audrey begged us to find Barbara.

     My mom and I gathered up all the names Barbara had used.  We scoured the internet and called every number that came up listing a Barb/Barbara with any of her last names.   The phone calls always ended at dead ends.  We even paid a search service that claimed they could find anyone.  (I am hear to tell you...they can't find anyone.)  When that didn't turn up anything, we stopped the search.  To be honest, we didn't want to find Barbara.  We were scared to death of her.  If Barbara started coming around, we intended to do the disappearing act ourselves. We never let Audrey know we stopped looking.

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     After the sale of the house, my mom did work on getting Audrey's other affairs in order.  This time the affairs did mean cleaning up Audrey's apartment and giving away Harold's things.

     Once that was done, my mom convinced Audrey to move out of that apartment.  It was a good 20 minutes from my mom's house and it just wasn't convenient.  Besides, that once beautiful, safe part of town wasn't so beautiful and safe anymore.  Furthermore, because of my mom's own medical issues, she didn't have an abundance of energy.    Working from 7 am to 1:30 pm and being on her feet all day, she didn't always feel like driving, hanging out with Audrey and then driving home.  And, since it wasn't feasible for my mom to see Audrey every single day, we thought it would be a good idea if help were readily available.

 

     So, in 2000, my mom moved Audrey 2 miles from her work and 4 miles from her house to an assisted living residential facility.  We would learn later on, the year 2000 was significant far beyond Audrey's move.

     Stay tuned....