She loved her job. It was an office job as a secretary. She was doing a good job and making her some money. I was so proud of her. One evening after closing our son went in to see her and he caught them together. He came home and told me about it. (I won't say any more about that.)
I wanted to work it out and I thought she would, if for nothing else, for the sake of the children, but Satan was too strong for her. I thought after being together for twenty-five years and serving the Lord for 20 years she would be close enough to the Him to be able to take on Satan. In our small town, everyone knows each other or are related.
Linda's boss was related to a City Council member somehow. If you get the picture. As you know I was fighting City Counsel over pornography and caused a lot of problems for them and the person who sold it who was on the council.
I had a job I loved so much, driving a school bus for handicap children for 13 years. At the time, I was going through a divorce, we lost the home we were going to purchases, she took the children, something happens to one of them and so much was going on in my mind I didn't know if I was coming or going.
Linda's New Job
Besides my regular route each day, I transported the band to football games, competition, took children on field trips, took the football team to games and so on.
I would take the bus to schools and park in the lot so the teachers could bring their classes out, one at a time so I could talk to them about school bus safety and show them the danger zone. Of course, I went through training myself and went through some courses before I could teach safety to the students.
I started out as a sub driver and drove routes for other drivers that were sick or had to be off for some reason. After about a year I got my own steady route. I drove it for a couple of years and I was offered a job driving the handicap bus. I had students in wheelchairs, hearing impaired, discipline problems and so on.
I loved these children so much, the sad thing about it was, every now and then one of them would pass away because of their health problems. I use to sing to them, tell them stories, bring them things and at Christmas time I would play Santa for them. They would get so excited.
As I stated before, I live in a very small town and there are a lot of people who know one another and/or related to each other. In my situation, the big shots at Portsmouth City Schools were either really close friends or related to members of City Council.
I started getting harassment, for example, you never back a bus up close to a door of a school when children are getting ready to come out to catch the bus. We learned that the first day.
Someone had the alleyway blocked on the end I drove through to pick up the handicap students and it took a little longer for me to pick them up. My boss got on me for being late and told me I should have gone to the other end of that one-way alley and backed in to pick them up, though it was against not only the school policy but the law too.
I was transporting the children down the highway after school when one of the problem children was coming to the front of the bus and trying to take the keys out of the ignition and he wouldn't stop.
I pulled the bus over off the road and called my boss and I was told to do the best I could instead of sending me help. Keep in mind that I had hearing impaired, children in wheelchairs and problem children. I was trying to keep my mind on driving, understand what they were trying to tell me, take care of the problem child that kept coming up in front of the bus and making sure the children were safe and I'm told to do the best I could.
After parking my bus at the lot, I went home. A few minutes later I got a call from my boss asking about a student, I told him I dropped off all the students. After hanging up, I sat in my chair and tried to run my stops through my mind, as I did I remembered the hearing impaired child who let out a loud squeal and how I drove past a stop. I thought, my Lord, did I leave one on the bus? I jumped up, got my shoes on, run to my car and headed to the lot. I unlocked the bus door, went through the bus and there she was, sound asleep in the back seat.
I woke her up and took her home to her mom, she didn't know what was going on. I told her mom that I was so sorry. She said not to worry about it, everything was fine and she didn't want anything to happen to me, her daughter thought the world of me and she loved me.
When I got back to the lot this time, my boss talked to me and said to be sure to check the bus from now on. I told him I was sorry and again I told him what I was going through and he understood. When I went to work the next morning my boss met me at the bus and very reluctantly he handed me an envelope, asked for my keys and said I was off work with pay until they set up a meeting with the arbitrator, they were fired me and using my leaving the child on the bus, looking over the note her mother wrote to them that she didn't want anything to come of it.
The school board thought I was a good man, a good driver for the school and a good Christian man. The Superintendent took part in the programs we had for the youth. On out kid-minded day he showed up to with Congressman Bob McEwen, Senator H. Cooper Snyder, and his wife Dorthy. He came to the opening of our summer camp for abused, neglected and needy children, to get recognized with Roy Rogers sister, and others. I use to talk to him in his office about the children and their problems. I thought we were good friends, as well as his assistant. I didn't know it at the time, but they were either good friends or relatives of the gentleman who owned the store with the pornography and served on city council . What kind of person would claim to be a good friend and stab you in the back? Judis can answer that question.
Another problem I had was, our Union President was paying other drivers to run her runs and reporting that she run the route for them. She got paid for it, built up her retirement and receive credit for something she didn't do and it was keeping me, as a senior driver, from getting extra pay for it. Having four children with one in college I needed the work. I reported it and a friend of mine told me that after I reported it the Union President and someone else was in the file room going through pay records and making some changes on her pay records.
I was told by the school board that an Arbitrator from Columbus would be here to hear my case on such a date and time to hear my case. A few days later I got a letter saying the Arbitrator was coming from Cincinnati. I didn't think anything of it at the time until after I was fired. Before we went into the boardroom, the assistant Superintend and an attorney told the Arbitrator to just fire me. I told them that I didn't want my union president in the meeting because she was in it too. Sure enough, when I walked in she was sitting there with the others.
I received word that the reason they changed Arbitrators was that this guy went to college with the assistant Superintendent and were good friends. After I was fired from my job of 13 years, our union president later left a little boy on her bus that went to sleep on the bus. She parked her bus in front of her home on the busiest highways in the city. The boy woke up, didn't know where he was and got off the bus into the highway. A neighbor saw him wondering in the highway, got him by the hand and took him to the drivers home. Guess what happened to her, your right, nothing.
I was paid for my first mistake in 13 years because I reported fraud at the school and forgetting pornography out of the hands of children. It was worth it and I would do it again to keep Satan from gettiong to our children. What was killing me was I lost my children, something happens to one of my children, I lost my wife after 25 years, our home and my job after 13 years that I loved very much.
You have no idea what I was going through unless you have gone through it yourself. It affected my mind, my health and everything about me.
I was sitting in divorce court not knowing was going on around me. I knew where I was, I just couldn't function. It was like I was somewhere else looking in. When the judge asked me a question I couldn't answer, I couldn't focus. I felt like I was lousing my mind.
Satan was working overtime on me and my family. The Lord tries to warn us about things that will happen to us when we live for him and step on Satan's feet. I tried to tell my wife to be careful before she started on her new job. There is one thing about Satan, he is no respecter of people, young or old, no madder your race, he will try you.
I ended up losing my home, my wife, my children, my job, my health and I was at the end of my wits. I couldn't sleep, I was having nightmares, walked the floor, I didn't take care of myself and my parents had to make me shave and shower. I didn't want to do anything anymore, I just gave up on life.
I never felt so lonely, lost, down and frightened in my life like I have since this whole thing started. I would drag myself to church but all I could do is sit there lifeless.I could feel the Lord next to me with His arm around me trying to confort me.
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
At one point I was contemplating suicide. I would be driving down the highway and see a semi truck coming at me and I thought about running under its back tires, then a small still voice would talk to me and tell me not to, it would be murder.
Then I am reminded of the verse;
Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I amwith you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
