Love Story: Amber & Larry

Chapter 6: Moving Out, Moving In, and Mental Issues

Me and Larry are already engaged at this point for those wondering. We got engaged that same year in July after we got together in May. Hard to believe I know it. Prepare yourselves for a long ride. It is now past that Labor Day weekend and back home in West Virginia for a few more months because we had made plans to see my Grandpa Gail that year. In case you are wondering, he is my mom's dad. No, my siblings didn't go with us on either of those trips, only I was able to because of the fact that I couldn't travel alone and I wasn't settled exactly while waiting on Larry to move to West Virginia. Though I had dreams of being in Tennessee with him and raising my daughter down there.

Nothing important happened down in Florida to be in this story.

Once we arrived back in West Virginia after sending Larry a text message that we returned home safely because we kept in contact while I was down there and kept up to date with one another. After getting my luggage put away and getting Melanie settled down for dinner, I got the call from him that he needed a place to stay because Bryan got arrested for destroying his mom's house then let's add both mom and his step-dad got drunk. It was a constant routine that he had to deal with. I'm only adding this as essential information: his mom and her side of the family are known to be alcoholics and drug users, we don't associate with them. As you will find out in a much later chapter. This is what I wasn't prepared for when his mother told me good luck fixing him after meeting them. I didn't know what the hell she meant, I just knew I wanted to be with the man no matter the ordeals we would face.

Larry moved in with us (my parents and siblings) in November. We got settled into a routine. It wasn't hard since I hadn't much to deal with besides keeping Melanie safe and happy after a relationship prior, I still had that weighed on my mind. With him moving in with us it didn't take long for me to notice that something was really off about him and I couldn't get through to him. It was like a wall he wasn't willing to open up to me. A month went by that I had to deal with him, mostly his anger at the world and him telling me ways he would try to kill himself before we got together. Let's just put it this way, Larry had mental issues that I didn't know no one could fix. I walked into this blindly when he yelled at my daughter one evening before walking into Walmart. I had jumped his case and made him take a walk all because Melanie was fussy. She was a fussy four year old. It had been a long day into the night and she was worn out. He caught back to us in the toy aisle, we got what we needed and left. I didn't speak to him much that evening because it hurt me that he lashed out at my child.

Christmas being right around the corner, I needed to speak to my own mom and have some help on handling Larry because I had no idea besides my own younger brother having mental problems. My mom told me to give him an ultimatum, make him decide on something then see if it works. Never in my life had I done that, let alone stand up to a man, and that is when he got his wake up call. I gave him that ultimatum: It's me and Melanie or go back to his mom's because I wasn't dealing with someone who had problems. He was mad, oh, by god was he mad at me. He never in his life had a woman stand up to him like I did. I gave him fear of me. To this day, he still fears me when I am upset or angry. You will see much later on why that is. I gave him the deadline to Christmas to get his shit together or he is out. Technically gave him into the New Year. The therapy place was closed at the time and he had no choice but to wait. So, I had to give some leniency but he kept his word once the office reopened and signed up for therapy. We both knew he needed medication as his anger and other issues were way out of control since I had no direct answers besides his grandmother's death and him blaming the whole family for the mess when reality was that one person made a huge mess of it. We began with him writing his feelings out in a notebook that ended up being bad because he destroyed the notebook once he got close to finding his feelings and he burnt the book. I remember it because he made sure that his feelings had to be kept hidden like our parents and the generation before. The therapy sessions worked on him talking to someone besides me, yes, I helped no lie. I made him bring up anything and everything. I wanted him to be honest with himself. It really came to the fact that his parents separated when he was younger and he wanted a family like everyone else's. It was the hardest pill for him to swallow. He grew up not understanding why their relationship was toxic. No, they were never married but it definitely wasn't an easy sight growing up. I will not delve too much more on this as it isn't my place, I am his wife and I have respect for not going too deep.

Our relationship took bumps towards our second year, with him switching jobs and getting Melanie prepared to start Kindergarten that August. We also had our first Thanksgiving together that year, we got to learn to cook it and we were so happy.