"BEHIND THE GLASS WALL"

Yes, I got to see my husband, Jimmy , on Monday, after exactly 11 months!  Jimmy looks fantastic!  You'd never believe he is a man that has spent 15 months in prison!....That's my husband for you! He looked bright, glowing and happy....smiling as always....immaculately clean...hair cut, clean-shaven....and best of all , he has lost around 50 lbs!...he kept that little secret from me all along....he always says he lost weight, but i never imagined he lost so much....he looks great!  He lost his tummy.  He looks half his size!.............Well, we were pretty far away from each other, seperated by a glass wall, and a security person.  We smiled, laughed, and blew kisses. We could hear each other a little. It is a place in Kearny, New Jersey, called TALBOT HALL.  I was surprised, it is a really nice place.  An old large, brick building , with what appears to be marble floors.  So clean, the smell of antiseptic was in the air.  The glass wall sparkled with cleanliness! Jimmy's friend picked me up in his sports car and drove me there....it does take 1 1/2 to 2 hrs. to get there.....It was a deluge of rain....very low visibility...As you may have heard, there has been very heavy rainfalls out here, with flooding.  Well sure enough, we have been waiting for this day forever (to see jimmy), so the day I rode there, it was in the middle of the storm.....yes, the heavens opened up, as Jimmy and I met...Jimmy always says our love and energy is strong enough to light up the Eastern seaboard, and truthfully, he is not wrong!..The power of our love is so strong, it opened up the skies....affecting New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland.  And so, his friend carried the heavy bags, and I had to show each item to the guard.  Some things he sent back with me, that contained alcohol.  After about 45 minutes, we left....still unable to touch or hold Jimmy....that would be this coming week-end, or next week-end...I am so happy to see Jimmy healthy and looking happy...that is my main concern.  His counselor happened to pass by when I was there, so he introduced me to him.  He formerly lived in Las Vegas, so he was all happy to see me!

Jimmy wants me to come there on some Tuesdays...7pm to 9pm.  They have MARRIAGE COUNSELING that night....a dinner and group session.  His friend says he will take me there.  I think Jimmy just wants to hold my hand for 2 hours...that's all!...and set an example for others..."what it's like to be in love, through thick and thin."

While there, I picked up 2 big plastic bins from the prison of Jimmy's things...mostly all our pix, and the computer pix i sent him...all computer stuff i sent him, including copies of this journal....it is so much stuff i sent him, you can't immagine...I started to cry when I opened the boxes at home...this was the stuff that helped my husband survive the long long days at that prison.  He had taken my pix, along with prince, misty, and jimbo, and put them in 6 photo albums...along with cards i sent...verses i wrote....Jimmy is very artistic, and he put thlose albums together in a very artistic way...He had showed the whole prison those books!  as i looked throught those books, i thought about how they had passed through so many hands...lonely people...maybe it spread a little joy to them!  Jimmy said the guys loved to sit and stare at the pix of me eating clams on the half-shell, on the boardwalk at SEASIDE . Jimmy had taken about 5 pix in succession of me eating the clams!

Anyhow, the picture books are up on the bookcase, now, along with the other photo albums.  After I write this, I will open the second plastic bin...It is a little emotional for me to open them...I feel Jimmy's presence in the prison, as I open them.

And so, it won't be long now, before Jimmy progresses to the Half-way house.  He will stay at Talbot 60 -90 days.....although some get out at 45 days...so we figure around the end of August or beginning of Sept....he will go to the hallf-way house, and then come home on week-ends.  In October, he will go before the parole board, and be able to come home soon with a metal bracelet on....I'm almost positive he will be home for the holidays...

In the meantime, he is kept busy at Talbot.  He attends sessions all day.  Recovery groups.  AA groups (people come from outside, too). Jimmy always talks in these groups.  He enjoys learning about people, although he himself has no addictions, except, I suppose, the thrill of committing a crime.  For a highly intelligent man like this, it is actually a challenge to commit a crime...it is almost like e chess-game.....but he promises never to do it again, now that he has me, and a family, to live for.

Well, I'm happy seeing Jimmy.  I've also been a little tired, so I've been resting up.....After all, I really haven't gone out of the house on long-distances or 15 months....Thank-you, everyone, for being concerned about me, and leaving your nice comments!............I gotta go rest now!