One of my best friends and ex-room mate who still remains a jw called me just 4 days ago asking me for info regarding emergency medicaid. He had been hospitalized for almost a month and had no health coverage at the time so he called me knowing that I'm a know it all.
Even before me being df'd he would always be afraid of his parents knowing we hanged out together so that made it even more fun! I mean, it's not like my friend and I did drugs or stuff like that but even just a little bit of fun would upset his parents. There were times when he'd make up names for me but his dad always caught us lol. I remember his dad calling me once and me pretending i was someone else and him insisting he'd take me to the elders, blah, blah.
To make the story short, my buddy called me and explained he had developed an acute case of leukemia which also caused him to lose his vision. We have always been very close so this has been pretty shocking to me. I knew that the information that I had given him would not help him much so I decided to build some courage and confront his parents, friends and or any elders I would come across at the hospital!!!
I contacted our county human services and she helped me get the paperwork started. Then I called my friend's mom and disguised my voice and told her I would send my wife later with some paperwork. She thought i was a 'brother' :)
My plan was to send my wife to the hospital and be done with it. But as I read over some of the complexity of the emergency medicaid paperwork I decided to help my friend with everything. So there i went with my non jw wife, we agreed that she would go to his room first while I waited by the waiting area for her signal, lol. The signal being parents only, parents and friends, parents, friends and elders. So there she went and signaled only parents so that made things more comfortable.
Once they saw me come in they were a little shocked but they handled it ok. At first they though I had just come to see my buddy but then they realized i was the 'friend' that had told them about the medicaid program.
The first few minutes were quite awkward but things warmed up after the first visit. My wife and I went a secod time and we spent almost five hours filling out paperwork, gathering bank statements, etc and anything we needed to apply for medicaid. They also agreed for me to be his representative as that would keep them from being financially liable for their adult son's bills. There were so many people that came to visit including elders! All these people I knew from years ago but I would always be too busy filling out apps so I was ok for the most part. At one time my wife was asked if she was 'a jehovah's servant' and she was like "huh?" lol...
I had only brief moments alone with my friend but I took advantage to joke around like the good ol days but I also asked if it had been his choice to reject blood. He said something like 'I'm a f*** hero! lol," and "everyone looks up to me now"... i told him he was nuts that rejecting blood was not a way to prove anything. I felt that perhaps his refusal to accept blood might have contributed to his leukemia worsening and causing the blindness but I am not sure so I just kept that to myself.
he also told me that he was really surprised about his dad 'not kicking my a** , lol but rather they took things pretty cool. On my last trip to the hospital the dad thanked me and asked me if he could ask me a personal question, to which I agreed!
He was like, err are you still df'd .... and I'm like "yes..." lol. "are you making any arrangments, you know..." - he asked.
i was like "hmm.. well the elders went to visit me some time ago..." (which they did, i just omitted the part where I was non responsive to their call"
"oh, okay" he ended.
and that was my story for this weekend!!! My friends mom still wants me to help them find some more programs for his long term care and that will be my perfect excuse to check on my bro.
tsar