The danger of words

January 14, 2015

The Tale

Greg was shell shocked so to speak but it took very little to get him out the door from the suite in the Residence Inn and head for a good meal.  Prison food we would hear was not what one would think, breakfast in Tuscumbia that morning, which had been delivered early in the morning was cold oatmeal with half of a hot dog which had then been cut in half, and a dot of jam equal to the size of an eraser found on a standard wood pencil.  I would later hear from others that the people in charge of food were given a budget of $1.50 per person or something like that,  and they could pocket any money if they ran an efficient operation.  I don't know if that is a fact, that is what I was told. Alabama was engaged in a debate with the federal government to leave their prison system in the hands of the state rather than allow the feds to take over jail administration.  Few people doubt prison conditions in developing countries are horrible but it comes as a shock to learn the truth about American jail.  I was a new convert as Karina and I listened to the horror of what Greg saw.  I hope that someone will take the trouble to investigate conditions as they truly are in prison and not have hardened hearts full of prejudices that thrill on the unnecessary suffering of others.  No food or drink for 19 hours as experienced in Cook County, cockroaches and 7 men in a 10 x12 space with a shameful standard of 'food' for our brothers.

 As Greg said,
"These people may have done something bad, but they are not bad people".
An observation that I hope people of all faiths, especially for the people in the Bible belt, will work towards understanding.

We went out for dinner to a steak house and I encouraged Greg to eat modestly since he admitted he had not eaten just to avoid going to the bathroom in front of others.  I thought it would be better to have a small meal, not to stress his digestive system.  Four Cops came into the restaurant.  I almost fainted as I nervously assumed they were there because of us and Greg and something else terrible and unexpected  was about to happen,  but they were only there for dinner.  Clearly I was still on edge.

Two days later, Karina flew back to Canada and I stayed with Greg,  just waiting for those documents to be reviewed.  On Tuesday November 26, 2015 two executives from  the 'team of five' flew in on the company jet to meet with Greg.   He was still recovering from the trauma and I decided to join him for the meeting to give him moral support.  There was casual conversation about things unrelated to the situation, and one of the fellows passed Greg an envelope, addressed by hand.  I looked over Greg's shoulder as he opened and read it.  I sae Greg's hand trembling, it was a hate mail letter, cursing him and hoping that Greg would go to prison for 99 years.  I grabbed the letter away from him.  Meanwhile it had become clear why the two had come to visit, they were asking Greg to sign documents to resign from MBI effective immediately.   I grabbed my husband's hand and prevented him from answering as I could see that he was visibly shaken.
"How dare you,"  I protested "Greg IS MBI.  He built it up from nothing.  He will continue to be the company, and he will not agree to sign anything, and furthermore" I said throwing the hate mail across the table,
" don't you ever, ever, dare bring something like this to Greg again.  Shame on you."

I am sure they returned to Canada with quite an explanation why Greg did not sign anything.

The next couple of days I literally forced Greg to start calling every top executive in the grimmet industry.  Every ally he could think of was to be contacted in order to undo the damage that the team of five had created, in my opinion, this was important for Greg's mental state and for the health of MBI as well.  Not only did I have to worry about the legal mess in Alabama, but I also needed to worry about the family business as well.
Soon enough my husband was his old self again.

The original trial date had been set for the end of January 2014, but since the prosecution had 'downloaded' 1.5 MILLION pages of documents to Abe and his defense team it was obvious that no one in their right mind could read all of that material in such a short time.  It was impossible to be prepared in 7 weeks with Christmas holidays in between as well,  so Abe asked for a postponement.  They were successful with the request, and the trial would now be in the first week of October 2014.

The first meeting to prepare for trial was set for December 4, 2013.  Greg thought it was to get his paperwork resolved in order to leave Colbert County, but instead it was the first orientation meeting with the lawyers.  He was very disappointed.  He thought we were going home, in fact the disappointment would continue for some time.   Oh, and by the way,  just like during the real time line, my melanoma had taken a back seat.  Only the immediate family knew about the procedure because after Greg was arrested the melanoma was not the tope story.  Seven days after the procedure, I received the pathology report.  All was good, but I was to have my eyes examined since melanoma spreads to areas with high blood flow, the back of the retina and the liver are two places to watch.  The other bad news for me was that Abe had fired Robin.  Abe had told him after the appearance in court on Thursday November 21 2013 that he did need him and that he did not want him.  These were two very problems: there was nothing to do about an eye exam in Florence, and I hated the idea that Greg was putting all of his trust and faith in what the 'team' had organized. I had no choice but to sit in silence, balancing and prioritizing what was worth mentioning out loud.

And that is how I learned that you can't always say what you want to, when you want to.