Family Secrets Part II

My mother was an original Desperate Housewife. "I never told you this?" my Mom asked me. It was late Saturday night, and we had just shared a late-night snack. "No," I responded. "You told us his name and that you had lived in Indiana with him, but nothing more than that." "Well then," she said. "Here goes." "I met Joe* in high school," she started. "I was a freshman and he was a senior. Sandy (my mom's best friend) was in my class, and David (Sandy's future husband) was in his class. Sandy and David were already dating, so they introduced me to him. We would double-date all the time, all throughout that year and after he and David graduated." (*All names have been changed.) "His parents owned an electronics store in town," she continued. Mom's hometown was a small village in northern Illinois. In the '50s and early '60s it was still quite small. Everyone knew everyone-- and everyone's business. It still retains a lot of that small-town charm, even today, although it has grown much larger in population since. My grandmother was a schoolteacher, and my grandfather sold Pontiacs at the local dealership. They were well-respected and well-liked in the community. "Joe worked at his dad's shop through high school and afterward. They sold TV's and Hi-Fi's, and other electronic items, and did repairs on-site. They had a good business, but Joe's dad was never a very good businessman. He was the type of guy that would forgive a lot of people's bills or give things away if they couldn't afford them. It made him very popular, but in the end, he found himself in financial trouble. Joe would tell me that they had trouble paying the bills fairly often, and many times had to borrow money to cover things." "I can't remember if we were engaged before I graduated high school or not," Mom continued, "but I think we must have been, because I remember him asking me for some money once to cover some debts. So I took $250 out of my savings account and gave it to him. My mother nearly KILLED me, and in hindsight I'm surprised she didn't. 'You'll never get that money back!' she cried. 'The whole town knows they're not good for anything when it comes to money!'" Grandma was right. In fact, Mom said, the town was beginning to talk about Joe's family and the news spread like wildfire. Business dropped off quickly, and Joe would tell my mother that they were getting very scared. "I would pass by their store on the way home from school," Mom continued, "and stop in and say hi. So one day I made my way over there, and found the doors locked. When I looked in the window, there was nothing-- and nobody-- inside. I remember thinking to myself, 'Oh boy, what's going on now?' and headed home. When I called their house, I got a recording saying the line was disconnected. So I tried the answering service (which was one lady in town that took messages for all the businesses in town-- that's how small the town was back then), and she told me, 'Oh honey, didn't you hear? They left town in the middle of the night last night-- took off without a trace!' Now my mom was frantic. Her fiance was gone, with his family, without any indication of where they had gone. As news spread through the town, it surfaced that the family had owed a great deal of money to both customers and the government, and fled to avoid being arrested. About a month later, she got a phone call. It was Joe. "I'm OK, and so is the family. We are in Texas. I can't say much more in case your line is being tapped, but I will get in touch with you soon." And the line went dead, and he was gone. But the mystery behind Mom's first fiance was only just beginning to unravel... to be continued.