Our meet-up wasn't moving along as smoothly as I had hoped (do they ever?) The numbers of attendees kept dwindling (not that there was a great number to begin with - I was just trying to get a group together at a local restaurant) until it seemed as though I might end up at the table reading out loud from various posts made on jw.com just to keep myself company . However, I knew I could count on SisterLiz, my long-lost friend from the Spanish congregation I used to attend, as well as her mother . Lo and behold - we drove up to the restaurant at the exact same moment. It had been years since we had all seen each other, and only thanks to this board did we know that we had all escaped the clutches of the borg. A rriving a half hour earlier than the others permitted us to get caught up (a bit) with what had transpired between being “true believers” to becoming “apostates-in-the-making”. After awhile, though, we began to think that we were going to be stood up . Was anybody else coming? Fortunately, SaintSatan saved the day and arrived with two ex-JWs who do not post on the forum, and we were later joined by another gentleman, never a JW but had been married to one and went through a terrible court case over child custody (I didn’t get all the details since he was sitting at the far end of the table). He was and always will be grateful to SaintSatan for helping him out (SS may need to give more details on this if he wants to since I did not hear about everything that transpired during the case, just that SS brought a briefcase full of documentation for the ex-husband (wish I could remember his name)) and helped him out tremendously. Totally absorbing conversation - poor waiter, he did a really good job and no matter what moment he chose to walk by and ask if we needed anything else or if everything was satisfactory, we'd be in the middle of listening to someone’s fascinating story and were barely able to wrench our attention away and respond to the waiter, which usually ended up sounding like a hurried, “no, no, no, we don’t need anything, it’s all fine”, waving him away with impatient smiles so as not to miss a word of what was being said (I hope he didn't take it personally - I think we all tipped him pretty well .) I doubt if that restaurant had ever seen a group of people clink their glasses in a toast with such giddy enthusiasm. The freedom to talk as we did, to share pain and sorrow, to be the listening ear as years of borg-induced guilt spilled over in a friend’s tears, as well as collectively wondering at our stupidity for being duped as long as we were by this horrid cult - it was a wonderful, funny, bittersweet evening. Supper lasted four hours. Yup, FOUR hours. I could not believe how long we had sat there and talked. Not once in all my years in the borg did I ever feel so comfortable with people in such a short time. We will be getting together again - SCULLY: take note!!! Mid-November is our target date. Ah, the joy of being free.
A great time was had - Scully, we're counting on you for next time!
by acsot 2 Replies latest jw friends
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Satanus
Yah, that waiter was like a buzzing fly that you felt like spraying w raid or something.
Four hours? You've got to be kidding. It seemed like an hour. You reported on that session pretty well, ac. The couple and my other buddy later said they were really glad they came. They were nervous about it before hand, but they enjoyed it so much, that the couple defenitely wants to come again to the next one.
It was nice meeting sisterliz and her mother.
The guys name was kevin. I helped him prepare for a child custody case (his kid). I got him and his lawyer the wt kit on child custody, so they would be prepared for the wt lies. I put him in touch w witnessinc - duane mugnani, and a couple of other antiwt warriors. I went along as an expert witness to show the judge what it was like growing up as a dub kid in the 60's.
The lawyers ended up negotiating everything out of court instead. His wife did end up w custody, but she had so many restrictions; like no meetings for the kid, no contact w the pedo grandfather dub, etc, that it turned out pretty satisfactorily. It has gone good for them in the 5 or 6 yrs since.
SS
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acsot
Thanks for the update on Kevin; no wonder he's so grateful to you. I'm glad the others enjoyed themselves, and I really hope they make it when we meet in November. I want to ask him about a couple of people we may know in common - even four hours wasn't enough time to cover all the subjects we could talk about.
Talk to ya soon.