part 3

The end of the school year was days away, and we had a ton of work to do on the dvd. My thoughts were constantly consumed with how I felt about this woman. The faceless woman of my dreams now had a face. I had never in my life felt the way I did when I was with her. Being with her seemed like an impossibility, but trying to not let anything happen was a force that was getting harder to fight. We put together the most incredible dvd and she sent them out to each child in her classroom.

Summer had started and we would meet early in the mornings to walk around our lake, at a nearby park. It was during those walks that we decided that being without each other was not an option. This was a huge step for both of us. I still don't know where I got the courage - I would assume finding your soulmate and being so in love helped. It was a difficult summer. Finding time to be together was very tough, and almost impossible, she had to go through mediation with the other teachers to solve how they were going to progress for the next school year, I had to be away on vacation for 10 days, dealing with our kids, the X's, etc. It was very tough. We decided to move in together near the end of the summer when my X had the kids in Michigan for a long weekend.

I have glossed over a lot of the details which were very painful, but they formed who we are today. While many of the details will remain unsaid and in the past, the fact that TBW was
drastically loosing weight won't. She was developing severe stomach problems and they appeared to be getting worse with each passing week. Summer was coming to a close, and we were becoming settled in our apartment. The girls were adjusting to the divorce - and we seemed to be moving along with life. A couple of days before the new school year, we went to set up TBW's office. I didn't do much - other than help her carrythings into her room. We had told the girls that financially I needed a roommate and that TBW needed a place to stay. Just "coming out" in the bubble, given the lives we led, wasn't feasible. We needed to develop a
"strategy". The day before school, I took the girls in to meet their teachers. We went back to the apartment afterwards and I was getting our computers set up and the phone rang. TBW told me to come pick her up because she had just been fired. I thought she was joking - based on what had been going on with her and how she talked on the phone with her teacher friends. She wasn't joking. Apparently, her aide was fired at the end of the previous school year due to the problems mentioned prior. She apparently had thought that TBW was the reason for her getting fired. So, she marched into the office and told the principal that TBW was not married either and she too was living with someone. She figured tit for tat.

I have never felt so much sadness for someone. Teaching is her passion and she is amazing at it. She was devastated. They wanted her to sign papers stating that she quit and she refused. This is how they had fired many in the past. If you didn't sign, they would give no further recommendations and you were basically screwed. The priest told her something about how she was "immoral and she defaced the C* church". She fought back, but the meetings with the union, and her lawyer basically left her without a job because of the endless supply of money backing the church. Luckily for her, parent's of students heard and a few of them offered her a job if she wanted it. She took one of the jobs and is still working there today.

It was the final blow of being fired that sent TBW's stomach into total chaos. With no insurance for 30 days after starting her new job, she waited to go to the doctor (also a Mom at the bubble school) as long as possible. At this point, we figured she had stomach cancer. She was in a
size 4 and they only stayed up with the help of a belt. She was finally diagnosed with celiac's disease. That is the body's inability to process wheat and gluten, etc. So, everything you do to calm a queasy stomach (chicken noodle soup, crackers, etc) was making her more sick. She passed out at work, and tore the ligaments in her foot, which put her on crutches. Problem was, she wasn't strong enough to pull herself along on the crutches. Finally one Tuesday night, we had the girls, and I went up to bed, and found her on the bathroom floor, her limbs were frozen and she was barely concious. I wasn't taking no for an answer again, we were going to the hospital. I bypassed normal doctor protocol, and called the doc at home. I emailed the doc she worked for, who was online, and as soon as the X got there, we carried her to the car. Of course it was pouring rain, we loaded her up, and walked into the ER, and both docs had arranged for
her to go straight into a room. Basically her body was shutting down, she had no potassium, magnesium or calcium left in her body (because everything she ate shot right out of her). She was so close to death, and it was very scary.

So, in a huge nutshell, that is how she got to where she is today. We have both gained back her weight :) and she can't get a recommendation to teach in this area. We have made it through so
much. Just recapping it has brought back many more details which I didn't go into, but it is amazing that we made it through it all. She has often said, that as devastating as it all was, she would do it again in a heartbeat. I would too, but I would also like to see her teach again. They need her and she needs them. I need her too... She is my other half...