GloZell and her husband moves to California…

In Orlando Florida, we packed Doc’s S.U.V. with all of our stuff including a bird, dog, and a cat.(Doc was a Veterinarian) It was fun trying to hide the animals when we got to a hotel. Traveling throughout Texas was the worst I thought it was never going to end.

We finally get to our apartment on Moorpark Street in Studio City California. There was a CBS studio walking distance! They taped on of my favorite NBC shows "Passions"on that lot. I would stand and look over the fence, wishing I could go in. I loved it. I started working at Sylvan Learning Center in Beverly Hills. That was fun.

I worked so I could have some money of my own. Doc paid for every thing and I wasn’t allowed to buy furniture. So I would drag pieces left over from yard sells. Doc would get mad but I didn’t pay for them. I’m good at staying within the rules but still doing what I want.

I changed jobs and started working at a spa close by. I had finished my Massage Therapy degree along with Skin Care before we moved. The spa was fine, it gave me a chance to meet some more people. Growing up in Florida everyone knew me before I was born.

Doc’s father would call all of the time. A lot of times, Doc would ask me to tell his father that he wasn’t here. Doc loved to work and wanted to get a house, which was way more expensive in California. Doc wanted his parents to be proud of him. Some holiday came up and we were going to met see his folks in Ohio but Doc chose to stay in California and work instead.

I checked out all of the comedy clubs and the famous club "The Comedy Store" said if I could get 10 people to come, I could perform. That was easy. I told everyone at the spa, the woman’s gym it was connected to and my new church. I had about 70 people confirmed.

The Friday I was going to perform for the first time in California at the famous "Comedy Store". The phone rang at 5:00 AM. Doc answered the phone and he started screaming No, No, No! God No, How, How did it happen? Doc was crying and screaming.

I sat up and waited for him to tell me something but he didn’t. He started making phone calls to the airlines. We were both in the kitchen now. He was sitting looking completely destroyed and I still didn’t know what was going on, but I figured someone had died.

He called one of his Vet. friends and said MY FATHER DIED MAN! MY FATHER DIED! That’s how I found out, I had to over hear. His father was on dialysis for fifteen years. Doc’s dad never drank water and finally his kidneys failed. Doc wanted to give his father one of his kidneys but his mother said NO years ago.

Doc’s dad was driving to his dialysis center at five in the morning, which he did for fifteen years, three times a week, when his car went into a ditch drove out of the ditch hit some Tombstones displayed outside, before he went strait on into a telephone pole. He wasn’t wearing his seat belt and his head stuck the windshield. I didn’t find that out until I got to Ohio.

Doc said we are going on the first plane out. (I was thinking I told all of these people to come to my first show. I would be black listed from the club and all of those people came to see me and I was always told the show must go on.)

I ask him if it was okay if I take a later fight and leave right after the show tonight. Doc said fine. I was also in a play at the church. (I had to walk to the church because he wouldn’t drive me, and I was booked to do a show in Florida the next weekend).

The Comedy Store show it was a hit. Some of Doc’s Vet friends came. That was nice. More that 70 people came, the Comedy Store had to grab more seats out of other rooms and some people still stood.

I told my Spa boss after the show I wasn’t coming in this week and why, I told the lady in charge of the play at church I will be gone for a week but I will know my lines. Then I called the theater in Florida and told them to fly me out of Ohio instead of California. All done! I got on the plane.

Before we got married, Doc told me that his family and friends would never think I was good enough for him. This is the time that his mother and I can become closer. I had gone to plenty of funerals and know how to keep it together when everyone else is falling apart; they will have to like me now.

People were bringing food from all over, so I helped organize that. Doc’s brother came in from out of the country where he played pro-ball. His younger brother came up from Georgia and his sister lived across the street. I was the only one who stayed at the house entertaining the people when they came by to visit with Doc’s mother. She thanked me!

Doc and his brothers haven’t been in Ohio for a long time so, they were visiting friends. One night Doc said, "I want to see dad". The funeral home didn’t have him yet. Doc kept calling until we were allowed to go to the funeral home as soon as his father got there. (Wrong thing to do)

We walked in and there was his dad just lying on a cold metal table. No clothes on under a bloody white sheet.( It was so awful) His father was a tall man and his bare feet were sticking out from under the sheet. I guess they cut his clothes off of him because they were shredded and in a paper bag. Because Doc’s father was a very dark man, it just looked like a little bruise on his forehead.( No one should see anyone like this). The funeral home tried to tell Doc, but Doc was insistent.

In the room Doc started saying "I’m sorry Dad, I’m Sorry! Over and over and over. He kept touching his dad and saying ‘I should have visited’. I just stood there frozen. Doc didn’t talk to me that much and I was worried about when we get back to California. I felt like he was loosing it. But every one is different, so this is how he deals. In time we will be fine.

It was HOURS before we left. The funeral home was closing (Thank God) and Doc was still heavily bawling over his dad, and feeling very guilty. We finally left. Doc was a complete mess. Doc now wanted to go to see the pole his dad hit.(Oh God No) So that’s were we went. We also went to see his father’s car at the junkyard.

There were no skid marks; his father never hit the breaks. The coroner already said that it wasn’t a heart attack. If he fell asleep, wouldn’t Doc’s dad wake up when he hit the ditch or the tombstones? Not to mention the fact that this was just a mile away from the house. He couldn’t have been asleep for all of that. It wasn’t raining, no one else was on the road and a gospel tape was still playing in the car when they removed him. I didn’t say a word.

I have been to a lot of funerals in my life but nothing could have prepared me for this.

To be continued…

LoVe Ya,

GloZell