April, 1987- Chantal called me to announce that she had just married her baby's father, George, while visiting his family in Southern Ohio. June 17, 1987- My first grandchild was born, and I
was there to welcome her. Her name: Amber Nicole Rippeth.
When Amber was only a few months old, we took her to our County Fair for the whole week. People were more interested in looking at her than at the goats, she was so cute. It had been a while since I took care of a real baby. It only took a couple of minutes for the baby goats to drink a bottle, but Amber took forever. I had about 15 kids on the bottle at the time. March, 1988- Chantal told me she was pregnant again, due in late September. I had to get rid of my goats. There is no way that I was going to carry 2 babies, only a year apart from each other, to the barns. September 30, 1988- Another beautiful baby girl. She looked exactly like her mother did as a baby. Her name: Erica Ilene Rippeth. Winter, 1988-89- My arthritis was getting so bad, I could barely make it to the barns in the mornings. Chantal had always been good at doing the milking and most of the chores, but Tania wasn't interested in doing any work of any kind. I had to dry up most of my milkers, the pain in my arms was unbearable. Some mornings, it would hurt so bad, I would almost cry. I was watching the girls and had to take Amber to the barn with me, every morning. Tania would watch Erica while I did chores. Amber was so cute, carrying a small bucket of grain for her favorite goat, every morning. I was only keeping enough milk for our own needs. May, 1989- This was going to be my last show season. I could hardly show the goats anymore, my arms were so weak and the pain was so bad. I started selling my herd, one by one. That was almost as painful as the arthritis. August, 1989- By the end of August, I had a dozen or so goats left. Our last show was our County Fair. I sold most of them there and took 4 yearlings home. I had them butchered a few weeks later. I sold all my supplies and fences, so I wouldn't be tempted to start over. On January 27, 1990, I got home from bingo that evening and the phone was ringing. It was the hospital telling me that Tania, (15) was admitted for taking drugs. Her heart had stopped beating and they had to revive her. I hadn't noticed that she wasn't home yet. A 34 year old man had given her some libriums (tranquilizers) and other pills. She was depressed over losing a boyfriend and he told her it would help her forget for a while, so she took them. After he saw her getting real pale and sick and she could hardly walk, he dropped her off at a pizza place, where the teenagers all hung out. Her best friend was there and she called 911. At first in the ambulance, her heart was beating real fast then it stopped twice in the 12 miles to the hospital. It stopped again when she got to the hospital. After they got her heart going, they pumped her stomach. She was in the hospital for a couple days. She was advised to go to a psychologist twice a week for 6 weeks. Her psychologist told her she should attend AA meetings as much as she can, because if she took the pills willingly, she must have a problem. I found out that she had been taking other drugs, and drinking. I took her to meetings for 3-4 months and then she decided that she didn't have a problem after all. April, 1990- By the beginning of april, the prosecutor hadn't done anything about the case. He told me he needed solid evidence. I decided I was going to find some evidence. I bought a bug for my phone and had Tania call his friend that took her to his house that night. She told him that she almost died and asked him what other kind of pills he had given her. He told her it was the guy's daughter's asthma medication. I got on the phone with him and told him we recorded it all. I got him to accept to be a witness. We took it to the prosecutor. On April 25, he was indicted on 2 felony charges. His parents posted their house as a $15,000 bond. July, 1990- It was a hot and humid day in the upper 90's when my son-in-law brought a motorcycle over. He told my son Jacques (20) that it would start shaking when it got over 50 miles per hour, so Jacques that was good in mechanics took it for a ride. All he was wearing was swimming trunks, no shoes or helmet. After 10 minutes or so, I really started to worry about him. I told my son-in-law to go check on him, he said I worried too much. Shortly after, a car pulled in my driveway and I knew right away it was about Jacques. My daughter and her husband took off to go check it out. The ambulance took him to the hospital. He had open fractures in both legs and on one of his feet. He was in the hospital for weeks. He was lucky to be alive, he hit a telephone pole, broke it and he was thrown in a corn field 50 feet away. Cars went by but couldn't see him, so he crawled to the road to get help. August, 1990- The guy that gave Tania pills changed his plea to "no contest" on a lesser charge. First week of August, I had to go to Canada, my oldest sister Micheline was dying of cancer, it was my last chance to see her alive. I had no money, so my family all split my traveling expenses. Jacques was discharged from the hospital. He needed a home nurse so he stayed at a friend's home. His mother was a registered nurse, and she took care of him until I got back from Canada. While I was still in Quebec, Chan called me to tell me that they couldn't find Tania(15). She never went home the night before. A few hours later, they found her crying and desoriented in an alley in a town 20 miles from home. She had been raped & sodomized by a guy she knew. She refused to call the police. After not quite a week in Canada, I came back home. August 30th, 1990- Micheline died of melanoma at the age of 48. I was not able to go back to Canada for her funeral. November, 1990- The guy that almost killed Tania was sentenced to only six months in jail, and most of it was suspended. He paid a $1000. fine and had to pay Tania's medical expenses. He had a five years probation, and was not allowed to have contact with people under 18. May 23, 1991, Chantal had her third baby. A boy this time. His name: Steven Dwight Rippeth. I was now babysitting three grandkids. The oldest, Amber (4) was staying with me most the time. She calls me mom still to this day. When she had to go home, her mom had to chase her out in the fields. She cried and screamed all the way home. She even opened the car door and tried to jump out of the car once. After that, Chantal had to strap her in Erica's car seat. Erica was now calling me mom too. May 1991, Tania found out she got pregnant shortly after she turned 16. Now I was real worried, we had found out that her dad carries abnormal chromosones. Her baby could possibly be born without legs, arms, roof of the mouth missing and the heart upside down. She had to be tested to see if she carried the bad genes. She did inherit that from her dad, the test showed she had same chromosones as her half sister (from Gaston's first marriage). I was with her when they gave her an ultra sound. I wouldn't look at the screen until I heard the nurse say "look at the long arms". All the babies born with birth defects in her family had no arms and legs. They then checked her baby (boy) to see if he was a carrier of the genes. A few days later, we received the test result. He didn't carry the bad genes. There was one chance out of three that he didn't carry it, and one chance out of six that he would be born crippled. I was dissapointed at first that she was pregnant, but felt that it was a good thing she was because it could be her only normal baby. November 20, 1991, Tania had her baby. His name: Dustin Alan Ware. She only missed one week of school.I now had 4 kids to babysit, 2 in diapers and both on the bottle. June, 1993- Tania graduated from Vanguard Vocational School at the top of her machinist class. She was the only female in the class.
