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Chapter 13: Linda
Before Linda was even born, she was trying to disobey the rules. Three weeks prior to her entry, she decided to give it a shot. It was a Wednesday and I started to have labor pains. They got down to seven minutes and I called the DR. Demaree, who was on the golf course TRYING to play a few rounds of golf. Bobby (his wife and one of my oldest and dearest friends) got in touch with him telling him Lois is in labor AGAIN. Soooooo he left the game and headed toward Monmouth memorial hospital. I was there a couple of hours when he decided I was in FALSE labor and sent me home! From then on for the next three weeks, before he went out to play golf he would stop by the house to see how the land laid (which was BIG and UGLY). Finally on September 26th, 1957 after a short and fast delivery, Linda Alice Stevens came into the world (there must have been an earthquake SOMEWHERE). She was absolutely BEAUTIFUL. She weighed 7 1/2 lbs. and was 22 inches long. I lifted my head up and saw her FLY out (like a frog jumping a lily pond), and from that day on she did everything FAST. She had a little light brown hair and blue eyes. Once again Hazel (my aunt) brought her home with me. Sally was just three years old and loved her on sight. Susie on the other hand was jealous of her immediately. I guess she thought her days of ruling the house were over (and she was right!). Dr. Demaree charged us $50.00 for Susie, $100.00 for Sally, and $150.00 for Linda. She was so sweet and happy, always smiling. She walked at 10 months. One day as she was playing with Sally's cash register bank on the kitchen floor, she picked it up and the drawer flew opened and cut her across the cheek. She still has that scar. Linda was a saver. Every penny she got she gave to her father to keep for her. She went to Gregory school just like Sally and Susie did. I left Cyril in May 1960 for Bud, if it hadn't been him it would sooner or later been someone else as I WAS UNHAPPY WITH Cyril AND FELL out love with him. I wonder as I look back if I ever REALLY loved him after he cheated on me when he was in service. I think I always loved Thurlow West and should have married him. I would go to school and pick the younger girls up and take them home. Linda always wanted to come hem with me. I have always thought the divorce affected her the worst. I had an apartment in Asbury Park and worked as a dental assistant to Dr. Ralph Tessier. He was a VERY good Dentist but thought he was God's gift to women. Talk about sexual harassment! No one could light a candle to him. I lasted four months with him. One day there was a hurricane and EVERY patient except this little old lady cancelled. He chased me all around the office for two hours. When I left that day I gave him his key to the office and told him to find a new girl to work for him as I had had enough. I still kept him as my dentist though as he was an excellent one. Bud and I were married three days after my divorce from Cyril on October 23rd, 1961. We got a dog and named him Oliver. Linda and Sally LOVED this dog and he loved them right back. We rented a duplex in Farmingdale at first, and then moved to Pt Pleasant. The two youngest girls came down every weekend. The house was on a thirty-foot deep, CLEAN lagoon. Bud immediately went out and traded a boat for some carpenter work. It was a Hankins sea stiff with a 380-grammar engine, and it was very fast. Oliver and the girls loved the boat. One day I looked out the window of the kitchen, which fronted on the lagoon side and saw Linda (about 6 then) and Sally swimming in the lagoon. Nothing wrong with that until I noticed Linda DID NOT HAVE HER TUBE ON (@#$#@!!!). I flew out and she was laughing, but also knew she had broken ALL the rules. She always had to do things HER way even as a small child. She was a natural athlete, good at everything, however she also had a nervous stomach and was always on edge. Shed go to school and throw up or have diaria. I 'm sure it was all psychological, and she's still that way to day. Billy would take her up town for ice cream (Sally too) when it was hot outside. He was great to all the kids and if it hadn't been for him there were Christmas when Chris and the girls (after I left Cyril) wouldn't have had any gifts under the tree, OR A TREE for that matter. Linda did not do well in school. She was smart but just didnt try or care. Sally on the other hand had a high IQ and did apply herself. Susie was about average but I'm ahead of my story. I went back and got the kids. Signed them up at new schools (except Susie who was in Jr. High). At first mass they got everything they asked for (and then some). But the furnace there backed up on Christmas night (year?), and everything in the apt was covered with oily soot. All the clothes, toys, everything. What a mess, fortunatly I had home owners insurance which covered almost all of the dry cleaning bill but some of our sweaters were ruined by the cleaners. Linda went to school at Red Bank Catholic and was out for track. She'd stop in the Colonial bar on her way home from school to see me. She was also dating. I think she lost her virginity at the age of 14, and from what I've heard was very permisqous all thru high school. She fell in love with Steve Oxley in 10th grade. Had her first (?) abortion at 16 years of age. She went to Long Branch High School, her father would take her to school, and she'd go in the front door and OUT the back. I think she was in the 11th grade when her father came to pick her up at Southbrook on a Sunday night. Audrey was with him. Instead of taking her home, they took her to Monmouth Medical Center and had her committed to the psychiatric ward for testing and evaluation. I guess she was smoking pot at my house, but she had not. She showed no signs of drugs THEN. She called me up from the hospital hysterical! How could her father do that to her she asked me? I didn't have a clue. They tried to keep her there for two weeks but she managed to get out. She'd wait for the visiting hours to get over and simply walk out with the crowd. She'd go back when she was ready. The doctors claimed she was bi-polar and put her on lithium. She said it wiped her out and refused to stay on it. Then when she got out they dropped her off to me at Southbrook and said "They had had it with her. She got a job working as a hostess at BIG BOY down where the Four Season dinner is now. She would get home around 10 pm, change her clothes and go out. She was nocturnal even then (that hasn't changed). She would hitch hike down to the STONE PONY or one of the other clubs in Asbury Park. She then worked at the Squires Pub (with Susie) and lived all over the place. When Steve Oxley went to collage in PA, she went out there and stayed with me. Of course she got pregnant. At 4 months into the pregnancy she drove some guys car home (it had no back to the drivers side seat), I don't know how she did it. It had to be painful as it was at least a three-hour drive. At twenty-two weeks they came home for the summer. He was a Long Branch lifeguard. Just before the summer season started he took her up to New York City. He told her it was to see if the baby was his, but actually he KNEW it was and had taken her up to some Hispanic dirty hospital to get an abortion. He simply left her there and came home so he could take his yearly lifeguard test the following day. She didn't have a penny. She called me up late at night collect and told me what was going on. Billy and I took the bus the next morning up to NY and took a cab to the hospital. She was sooo glad to see us! They had already started the saline solution in her to cause an abortion. She was 22 weeks along. We stayed with her until we got hungry and went downstairs to get a bite to eat. We were gone 25 minutes. When we went back upstairs, the patient across the hall called me in and said she had the stillborn baby 10 minutes after we left for supper. She said she went in and told Linda NOT to look at the baby and she went and found a nurse who eventually went in and took the baby away and cleaned her up. Later that night about 6 pm I was walking by the pay phone when it rang. There was nobody around anywhere, so I answered it. It was Steve Oxley calling to see if Linda was still there. BOY did I ever tell him off!! Then I called Al Pienkowski to see if he could drive up and bring us home, as they wouldn't let her go home on the bus (Billy had not gone up with me on day two). It took him a couple of hours but he did show up. He took me home and took Linda back to Lucy Cosintinos house where she had been staying. She then moved back home with Chris and I. She always had boyfriends, there were always flowers on the coffee table. Steve Oxley slashed his wrist two weeks later but didn't do the job right. He had the nerve to come over to see Linda I told him off again. He couldnt even do that right (cutting his wrist). The following summer Linda met Jerry Bailey at Bottoms Up. They went around together all summer until one night while she was at his rental house in Oceanport, he sent Herb McCauley up to his bedroom. He tried to rape her. She was furious with Bailey for doing that to her and that romance faded away. I ended up telling him off too. Susie was married to Ski then. Linda met Basil Ferrentino thru them. Ski and Basil were old school buddies at Christian Brothers in Lincroft. He turned her on to heavy drugs and the next thing I knew she was living with him in Sea Bright. She got engaged to Joe Vertrano the year before she took up with Basil, and had a beautiful ring but gave it back to him. She eloped with Basil to Maryland and got married there in 1986. I was working in Bricktown taking care of Mamie Devoe. Chris was in College. They bought a prefab house and put it on a nice lot in Mays Landing (Cologne). I was working for Harry Beebe then. The summer of 1987 (I think) Basil beat her up. I got Chris out of bed at 2 am and we drove down to Mays Landing and brought her home to Southbrook. He came up a few days later and she went back with him. One day she was talking on the phone to Susie when a UPS truck drove into her driveway, followed by three state trooper cars. The Fedex truck was delivering 5 pounds of marijuana to Basil from Ohio. They arrested him and her, and searched Kristin, who was only year old. Took her diapers off and took them as evidence. He ended up in jail for a year. They lost their house and Linda was forced to live with her in-laws for two years. The Ferrentinos took the money they got from the sale of the house on Holly Street and bought two Condos in Mays Landing directly across the street from the AC racetrack. One good thing came out of the Holly Street house. Linda rented Chris a room there while Chris were in his senior year of college. God knows where he would have lived. After Basil got out of jail the marriage went downhill. Shortly afterwards, Basil died in Mays Landing and Linda spiraled downwards, ending up in Asbury Park. Linda was hanging out with the LOWEST of LOWS! She carried a hunting knife in her pocket book. It was scary. She was in and out of jail several times, and each time I was the only one to go and see her. I had to wait 2 hours to see her for 10 minutes. I did that EVERY Wednesday and Sunday. It almost killed me, and my phone bills were unbelievable. Five dollars for the first minute and $2.00 per minute after. Shed call a couple of times a day. I never refused any of the calls because I knew how low her morale was. We finally got a chance to get her in the Salvation Army rehab in Wilmington, Delaware. She seemed to like it and was happy there. She met one of the counselors who were getting over from a broken ankle. She had pain pills etc in her medicine cabinet and Linda was stealing them, so she was doing that while STILL while in rehab. There she met Rick and they became an item. He left there and got a room and she left and joined him. Then Joe went down there and dangled heroin in front of her, and she left Rick for a while. They fought ALL the time. Then she went back to Rick and they both got jobs. She worked in the Airport restaurant and was making good money (no doubt stealing a few checks). He ended up beating her up and Cyril and I drove down and picked her up. She came back here. Joe had taken off to Florida by then and she followed him down there. Rick later stole money from ALL his family and a new Lexis and the State police were after him. They finally found him dead from an overdose of drugs in Maryland. They found Linda's telephone number in Florida and called there. Joe answered the phone and told them that Rick was someone he met when he stopped over on Delaware. Of course Linda got beat for that too and got a new nickname "THE BLACK WIDOW. Both Linda and Joe were in Florida as fugitives. He got a job with an old friend and helped him turn his failing business around, so that today it is a very good one. Joe got his problems taken care of (most were child support related); they rented an apartment in Boynton Beach, and were there a couple of years. Linda worked in a Diner and at Ralph and Roses Italian restaurant. I went down to visit them in 1998 and they were still up to their old tricks. Their neighbors (Jay and Debbie) were REAL LOW life. Drugs, booze and neither could hold a job so they leached off Linda and Joe. Joe was terribly jealous of Linda. He would go the Ralph and Roses and pick fights with anyone who would look at Linda. He beat her up on a regular basis. She finally took off with one of the cooks to Ohio. She was gone a couple of months. THIS guy also used her as a punching bag and beat her up so bad she was in the hospital. Joe sent her BUS money to ride BACK to Florida. She didn't know it, but it was a local bus that stopped at every town. The trip back to Florida took three days, and she was still recovering from her Ohio beatings. Joe was doing well at work so they rented a condo in Del Ray. Their old apartment was torn down and they were forced to relocate. In the spring of 2005 they (or rather JOE) bought a new house in Del Ray. It has three bedrooms, living room, dining room, 1 and 1/2 baths, a screened in family room and a pool. Kristin is down there now visiting. She was living there but missed her friends and also didn't get along with Joe. Linda seems happy, but her and Joe still fight all the time. I know she's no bargain to live with but he is ALWAYS putting her down and ALWAYS throwing his money up to her. He won't let her work nights and she can't make any money working days in the summer time in Florida. She can't get a job working anywhere with her felony record except waitressing. She still drinks her ONE glass of wine every day (she waits until it's almost gone and refills it, thus saying it's one glass. ONE DRINK!!! AND an ice tea glass at that). Her step sister Kerry saw her shortly afterwards and said she looked really good. Sally always says she looks like a monkey. She just WANTS to stay thin. I hardly ever hear from her anymore. Shes still smoking at least TWO packs of cigarettes a day and wonders why she feels so lousy. She doesn't go to the doctor to get checked out as ONLY JOE is covered by health insurance. When he had his heart attack last year the insurance company wouldn't pay his claim as they said he overdosed and tried to commit suicide. I feel bad that Sally doesn't bother with her when she's down there. Susie only hurts her every chance she gets. Im through worrying about her, as I'm sure she doesn't worry about me. Its a shame to have kids who can't find the time to call or drop you a line or send you a picture, although she did send me some of her house knowing I'll probably never see it myself. She does call Uncle Billy and that makes him happy. I guess I'll have to settle for that. With her good looks and shape Linda could have had ANY GUY she wanted and could have had a really nice life IF she had made the right choices. She's so much like me. We have both made some really poor choices in our lives, and CHOICES are what life is all about. Linda is Linda! She acts happy when she is not. She's generous and a VERY hard worker. She's devilish, cute, and very likeable when she wants to be. I will always love her...no matter what she does. ... NEXT |
| T h e L o v e l y L o i s S t o r y A Biography of Lois Eleanor White |
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