The Neighbors, Part 2: Ronnie & Girlfriend?

Ronnie is Olene's son. Ronnie called on the 4th to tell us that Olene had passed away the day before... the same day I posted Neighbors Part 1. Chris felt bad and wanted me to edit my post. I didn't. Ronnie said that they made the decision to remove Olene from oxygen. He asked Olene if she was ready to see Jesus and Kenny, and she nodded her head. Kenny was Olene's other son that died earlier in the year of lung cancer.



Ronnie is the product of dysfunction. I suppose we all are to some extent. But Ronnie is the product of obvious dysfunction. Olene was one of those sweet, mama enablers that let her children walk all over her and rewarded them for doing so. We have other neighbors that are similar. I might get to that in a later post.



Anyway, Ronnie has what we think is a girlfriend. She weighs quite a bit more than Ronnie and is, ironically, named Misty. They met at work at a time when Ronnie had a cocaine habit. She befriended him and stuck with him through his rehab. Misty lived with Olene and Ronnie the first year or so we lived in the neighborhood.



Olene, who was going through chemo at the time, complained to Chris that they didn't help much around the house. Chris ended up mowing most of the yard, because Ronnie could never seem to mow more than the front patch of grass. Finally, Ronnie and Misty decided to move out... to Misty's dad's trailer. Olene became even more miffed. Ronnie ended up calling Chris about a grill left at Olene's, and Chris used the opportunity to give Ronnie a verbal spanking. Ronnie cried on the phone.



Eventually, Ronnie moved back in, and Misty moved to government assisted housing. Ronnie picks her up for weekend visits.



Ronnie is in his late thirties or forties, I would guess. (Can you tell by his photo?) We have never known him to be able to hold down a job longer than a few months, and in fact, he hasn't worked at all in the past year or so. Since getting power-of-attorney rights to Olene's bank account, has blown lots of money on booze and fireworks. Another example of Olene's enabling (aside from the obvious grown-man-living-at-home-for-free): she refinanced the previously paid-for house to cover any debts, including a year-old minivan that she gave to Ronnie. Ronnie was never taught how to handle money or life, and since Olene has died, he now thinks that the best decision is to allow the bank to foreclose on the house... Oh dear. What will become of Ronnie?