The marriage...Part-2

After a few short months we moved into an apartment in Oak Park very close to family and friends. Work slowly improved and we settled into a period of relative quiet and peace. I found my new wife to be very attentive especially when it came to taking care of our dwelling. In fact, our place was neater and cleaner than either of our parent's homes.

Not wishing to beat around the bush, I will explain how a very dutiful wife slowly revealed that she suffered from a mental disability commonly known as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. What I noticed at first was that it took her forever to finish her cleaning and I would spend the evenings we stayed home alone on the couch until just before bed time. Eventually, she stopped joining me at all. Little alterations in her routine were met with bouts of frustration. Changes began to take place. One small example was the garbage can in our bedroom next to the night stand. I noticed that shortly after I used it, she would have to go and empty it. I felt as if I was causing her more work by using it so I stopped and used the kitchen or the bathroom can. One day I came home and it was simply gone.

She continued to spend more and more time cleaning, even when we became pregnant with our first child. Later I came to understand that it is caused by an over abundance of a chemical in the brain (usually inherited) called Serotonin. This causes the inflicted person to obsess of course and it is generally accompanied by repetitive behavior and hoarding.

The Lord blessed us with a beautiful baby girl we named Lindsey in December of 1987. She was the first grandchild on both sides of the family and was doted on profusely by all including us. Well, it would seem that shortly after birth the female mechanisms are all in place and ripe to get going again so we once again became with child when Lindsey was just a few months old. It was time for us to get a house and toward this end work was going well enough to allow it to happen.

We purchased a place in Southfield and I made certain that it was within the confines of the better Birmingham school district. In March of 1989, the family increased by one with the arrival of little Megan. Things at home however worsened considerably due to the fact that Lamea now had not only a larger home to keep, but four people to care for including herself......