August 9, 2003: Volunteering at the Tall Ships Event/Matthew

This afternoon, I volunteered to work at the Tall Ships. I was dreading it before I went and wondering why I signed up to volunteer. When I first signed up to volunteer, I was so excited and then when the reality came, then I was thinking why did I do this again?? 

I worked at the West entrance by the YFCA and passed out the maps and answered questions for people. I think I was doing pretty well. My feet got tired after 2 1/2 hours. By 4 p.m., I decided to take a short break and this security lady came up and we talked a bit. She was telling me about how she had to work for 15 hours today and she was so tired. She said that she just came back from Marquette, Michigan as her sister was in the hospital for overdosing on tylenol.
I guess her sister took 48 pills. The sister had some kind of depression but none of the medication was working. I guess the sister had 4 kids and alot of health problems, too. Boy, some people sure have some messed up lives. I feel bad for them.

Then, I was talking to my neighbor whose son I used to take to the movies, ice cream, ride bikes with, etc, and she was telling me about Matthew going back up north to see his father this weekend. He was just in a car accident a week ago. I didn't know the whole story of the accident until today. Apparently, Matthew had quit his job in Tennesse which is good because he was doing some dangerous work where he was climbing polls to fix cables. He had no training
on this job and the foreman was a druggie. Matthew didn't like the job nor the apartment he was renting, as it was infested with cockroaches. Anyway, he and two of his friends were on the way back and on I-69 in Lansing and the friend driving swerved off the shoulder and the car rolled several times. None of them had seatbelts on and Matthew and one of the kids flew out the passenger door and landed by the woods. I guess the car hit 4 or 5 trees. They are sure lucky they are alive as most people would die in that kind of accident. This all happened around midnight. Then, he was rushed to the hospital as he had a concusion.
 

Matthew had a wonderful mom and brothers here in Muskegon, but when he turned 13, he decided he wanted to live with his dad up north. His stepmom up there was mean to him and so was his stepbrother. His stepbrother tried to drown him when he was a kid and Matthew swam across the lake to get away. So much happened to Matthew living up there.

Now he has a chance to start his life over and find a job here, but he decides to visit his dad this weekend up north and see his two friends before they went back to Tennessee. Apparently, he called his mom today to say that he was thinking of going back down to Tennessee. I am hoping and praying he doesn't go down there and stays up here and gets a job. His brother back here in Muskegon is willing to sell his truck to him for a good price and his mom said he could
stay with her as long as he would like. I sure hope he doesn't go back to Tennessee.
Matthew was such a sweet child and he would come to my house all the time and I would take him places and treat him like a little brother.  I invited him to the movie this past week, but he said he couldn't go because of having to put neosporin in his head, but that he thanked me for thinking of him.
He told his mom to let me know he wouldn't be in Muskegon this weekend as I was going to go over and play checkers with him. Please pray that he stays here in Muskegon and away from those people who treat him so poorly. I think he needs to be around some better people than some of the ones you find up in the boonies.

It breaks my heart to see a child treated like that and grow up thinking that is the norm.

I am sure thankful that I haven't had to go through things like that. I have always had people who cared about me and so thankful for that.