Two years ago I had just started to work as a residential manager of a group home for mentally handicapped (challenged? I don’t even know the correct “term”) adults. It was me and good ole Manda, taking care of 8 special needs human beings. Had you told me we would be doing this kind of job together when we were in high school I would have laughed in your face and thought YEAH RIGHT. We do good just to make ourselves lunch!

I worked there for all of 6 months. Shit was just getting hard on Amanda because her half of the house was hellacious, so we both bailed. There’s no way I could have done that sort of work on my own, living in a house for a week with someone that is not one of my favorite people is not something that is doable for me. I left a really shitty job to work at the group home, but I had established great relationships with the people I worked for. We were friends, not just coworkers, and that was cool. Things weren’t like that at the group home, my supervisor pretty much hated me because I had an “attitude” when in fact I did not, she was just a bitch. Other than Amanda and another residential manager that I worked with, there weren’t any friendly people there at all. So of course I had no desire to stick around at the first sight of discomfort because I just can’t work for people who don’t appreciate what I do.

The ladies that we cared for were not exactly extreme, but there were definitely moments. I bonded with some and others I didn’t. I don’t want to go and say that I had favorites, but I definitely did. Amy Jo lived in my half of the house, and even though there were days that she screamed more than she did anything else I ended up really enjoying her. She really took to me as well, she would actually do the things I asked and not be completely difficult. Well, that, and she never tried to beat me with a coat hanger like she did Amanda, which was PURE COMEDY. I can still see that scene in my head now. The entire time I worked there I did not laugh harder than I did at that.

Amanda’s going back to work there, and I just heard from her that Amy Jo died on Monday. I feel really bad. I only went back and saw her once. I was really looking forward to seeing her again, I know she would’ve been really happy.

Filed in Memories, Sad on Thursday, August 9, 2007 ·