In the summer of 2006, my brother decided to leave his wife of 11 years for a girl he met in the Philippines. I'm not sure exactly how he met the girl. He either met her online or through another friend in the Philippines.
Anyway, my brother was "in love" with the girl. I will call her Liz. There was a bit of a problem getting Liz into the US though. The family said that the father made a little mistake on her birth certificate. Instead of listing her birth year as 1982, he put it down as 1987. That would have made her 19 at the time, which I guess would have been legal but she was suppose to be 24.
My brother is in his mid 50's, by the way, and has been married four times.
The birth certificate problem delayed getting Liz into the country. Meanwhile, my brother made several trips to visit her, bringing her family all kinds of gifts -- clothes, dishes, toys. He bought Liz a motor bike so she could get to and from work safely. He also bought her family some property.
Meanwhile, Liz is promising that she will take care of him. She will cook, clean, go to nursing school, and have children with him. She also planned to bring her 11 year old sister to the US.
Eventually the birth certificate problem was fixed. They bribed a priest to provide a baptism record which can be used in place of a birth certificate in their country. So in the summer of 2007, it seemed that she would finally be coming to the US. She went to the hospital to get some vaccinations she needed. Well, the family says she had an allergic reaction to something. She ended up in critical condition in the hospital, and she needed a blood transfusion. I have no doubt that my brother sent the money for the blood transfusion.
Then, we were told that she recovered and was fine.
At the end of September 2007, my brother flew to the Philippines to pick up Liz, get some final paperwork taken care of, and then bring her back to the US. The trip was suppose to take about two weeks.
He came back after one week without Liz. He said that when he arrived in the Philippines, he was met at the airport by Liz's older sister. The sister, who I will call "Jane Fonda" because (no joke) that is her real fucking name, said that Liz was not the same person any more. She said that after the illness, Liz had sustained brain damage, and that it would not be possible for my brother to marry her now. So he went to see her. He saw that she was not the same person, so he said his final good-byes and came home.
He called our mother to tell her what had happened. Our whole family felt bad. Even though we felt it was a scam all along, we knew (or thought we knew) that he was in love with her. We were worried that he might even be suicidal.
But a few days later, his daughter (who is an adult) emailed me to say "don't worry about my dad, he has already moved on to somebody else. It does not matter if it is one girl or another. He just wants somebody to be with."
Here is the kicker: The girl that he has moved on to is Liz's older sister (aka Jane Fonda). I feel like the story is starting all over from the beginning. He is now concentrating on getting Jane over to the US. He will visit her this Christmas and no doubt bring gifts for the entire family.
My family is in disbelief. Nobody wants to tell him he's a fool. He's an adult. He can make his own mistakes. He doesn't ask our family for money, so it's his own business. But we realize that this Philippine family is juicing him for all he's worth.
The above story is basically what I posted to the Craig's List rants section last November. A couple of people replied sharing similar stories. I'm not even sure what I'm asking for by posting this. I'm trying to make sense out of a situation that concerns me. I can't honestly say that I'm upset -- I'm just uneasy over this.
The latest development came last week. My brother flew to Bahrain to spend time with Jane. Why meet in Bahrain? All I've been told is that Jane has a friend there. But still, Bahrain? Bahrain might be one of the more liberal countries in the middle east, but does an American really want to be there right now? Unless you work for an oil company, why would you want to be there? It was definitely unwise to travel there during the 5th anniversary of the start of the Iraq war. Unwise. Every move seems unwise.
Is there a cure for his obsession? I guess he does not want to be cured.
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