October, 1988
Well.....there I was in Escondido, North San Diego County, California, with suitcases and youngest son in hand......we moved in with my older Jdub sister and her youngest daughter. (Not a pretty picture.) I began working at a Convalescent Hospital, my son began school and we started attending meetings at the Ash Street KH, staying busy all the time, of course.....and soon we moved out on our own. Really....after living in Texas most of our lives, it was almost like landing on another planet. People talked so fast that I couldn?t understand what they said....and my Texas drawl was so pronounced that they often didn?t understand what I was saying (yall woulda peed your pants listening to Sandy Renteria trying to figure out why I put "awl" in my biscuit dough).....and then there was the superficial graciousness and charm that was SO FAUX! Just go out there and get acquainted with someone and ask ?em to dinner and watch ?em effusively accept your invitation.....then watch the food get cold on your loaded table with no guests in sight as the appointed time passes into the night.
Within a year, I was having a "high ol? time" panting after some single anointed brother that the congregation had nicknamed "Wayne Weird" (behind his back)....Hey! Remember I?m still H.U.M.A.N. (head-up-my-ass-now) ....and as luck would have it, I was makin? an all-around ass of myself...K? Thank goodness it fizzled out...heh.
On November 18, 1989, I was driving from my regular night job, caring for twin preemies all night in San Marcos, to another part time job in Hidden Valley. I didn?t realize that my hypoglycemia had progressed to the point where I really needed to watch my diet more closely and I only had time to stop for a quick O.J. and coffee that morning between jobs. Welllllll....I might as well have consumed a "Mickey Finn".....as I was leaving the part time job around noon that day, the patient?s daughter stopped me and asked me if I was alright.....I looked at her questioningly.....(why was she asking?)....and told her I was fine.....about 10 minutes after I left their house and started down the highway back to Escondido, I "zoned out" with my eyes wide open at the wheel and had a head-on collision, totaling my car. My blood sugar had bottomed out, causing me to be "lights on, but no one at home" in the cranium. It?s hard to believe that as badly as my car was totaled, I wound up in the hospital with only two very badly sprained ankles, a double concussion, a sore back and knees, and a few cuts (stapled), scrapes and bruises and one missing fake nail. The other driver only suffered a broken arm. And little did I know, but "someone up there" had just pulled my "leash" up real short and my life was fixin? to go to hell in a hand-basket!
I?ll try to spare yall some of the sordid details of being persecuted by the other dubs ?cause I covered quite a bit of that part of the story in my bio-posts, while leaving the spiritual parts out......and before I return to the spiritual experiences narrative, I just wanted to give yall an idea of where I was in my life when the spiritual experiences began recurring. You see....there had been NONE since I?d arrived in California....I guess I?d been too busy living life, even as a dub, to become very engrossed in the scriptures since my arrival. But after the car accident, I began having a LOT of time on my hands. I?m going to try to remember the right sequence of spiritual events and their timing, but I?m not sure how accurate it?ll be, ?cause my memories are kind of jumbled since so much happened over the next 5 yrs.
By March, 1990, my money had run out, we were on AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) and soon to be evicted from our apartment. My Jdub sister who?d invited me out there and lived in the same apartment complex had essentially turned her back on us....another Jdub sister who also lived there and for whom I had gotten a very well-paying job, had refused to loan me one of her two cars (she lived alone) to drive us to the store and to Dr. appointments. My ankles were still bad because we had to WALK everywhere we needed to go and they had no opportunity to heal properly....and my head was still swollen from the double concussion.
I had asked for and recv?d the funds from AFDC to move to another less expensive apartment, and had called the BOE for assistance to move, since I had absolutely NO ONE around who would help me. I simply needed some strong backs and a pickup to move our belongings.
When the day came that we were supposed to be moving out (re: being evicted), I had yet to hear from the BOE. I kept watch to see if they would show up to help us. Neither had anyone else from the KH shown up at ANY time since the car accident to see if we were even still alive. Finally, late that afternoon, there was a knock on my door. It was two elders from the KH.....they told me they?d been sent by the P.O. (past-master overbearer) to let me know that there was NO WAY they were going to provide me with the funds to move and that since I had gotten MYSELF into that mess, I could just very well get myself out of it................I had wondered why they had suits on and why there were only two of them when they had arrived at my door......now I knew......so, just color me BALLISTIC!.......let?s just say they were ashamed, red-faced and awfully embarrassed when they left my apartment and leave it at that.
After they left, I realized that we were now completely alone, having been deserted by everyone we knew and there would be no help forthcoming. I had already rented the other apartment with the moving funds provided by AFDC, but the Constable would arrive the next day some time and throw our belongings in the street because we had no way to move them. So I began talking to Jehovah.....I never prayed.....even though the WTS always admonished that we offer formal prayers to Jehovah, it had always felt unnatural to me.....so I would just talk to Him silently like He was there listening to my mental conversation......and I asked Him if there wasn?t someone in the congregation that knew what "love your brother" really meant.....?cause it sure seemed like no one we knew had a clue.
The next morning, bright and early, a young sister in the congregation I?d just moved from knocked on my door. I thought she was out in field service, but I was wrong. I recognized her face, but couldn?t place her.....She told me her name was Secret....no really....that WAS her name.....Secret Renteria.....daughter of Sandra and Lupe Renteria, sister of Whisper and Lupe Renteria, Jr. and another little brother, whose name I can?t remember right now. Anyway, Secret told me that her mother had been asking about me and they found out my address and Sandy sent Secret to see how we were doing and if everything was okay with us. When I told her our circumstances, she called her mother and within the hour the whole Renteria family was there to move us. We became good friends with the Renteria family and I?ve missed them a LOT since they moved to Bend, Oregon about six months before I deliberately forced the Gov. Body to order my disfellowshipping.
I apologize for there not being much to tell up to this point, spiritual-experience-wise, since my arrival in California, but it was necessary to "lay the ground-work" for the spiritual events which began to occur thereafter......The spiritual fun will start in the next installment.....
See yall in the morning with Installment #4.....
Frannie B