I'm Walking as Straight as I Can by Geri Jewell

Author:Geri Jewell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ECW Press
Published: 2011-02-16T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Breaking Up Is Hard to Do

After completing Two of a Kind, I continued to do stand-up comedy and was offered a contract to appear in the third season of Facts of Life. I was also embarking on a new path as a motivational speaker, because I was considered a role model for millions of people across the country with disabilities. I received a vast amount of fan mail at NBC. The irony was, while so many people were looking to me for guidance, I was looking up clinical psychologists in the Yellow Pages, seeking guidance of my own.

I was uncomfortable being a role model because of how tumultuous my own life had become. I felt as though I was living multiple lives, each one dancing to different music. Even the best DJs in the world couldn’t rotate songs fast enough to keep up with the ever-changing tempo of my life-dance. My main confidante during this time was Jaymie. I told her everything about me, and I naturally believed she could be trusted. She gave me no reason to believe otherwise.

I was seeing a therapist whom I used as a sounding board, trying to make sense of my life circumstances, which were becoming increasingly complex. I was having tremendous difficulty balancing my emotions and sorting through what continued to be a maze of puzzles and lies. Hollywood had become Hollyweird for me. I sought the comfort and support of former teachers such as Blaine Moss, Jerry Hershey, and Kaleta Brown. I turned to these people over my own parents because I didn’t want to worry them. However, as with all parents, they worried anyway.

My mom especially carried the burden of worrying over my finances, because she had been the one who balanced the books, keeping our family on a very tight middle-class budget. My father was never good with money and depended on my mom’s practical sense of it. Mom was always practical and would give a set of pots and pans as a gift rather than something more personal. Mom never forgot growing up poor during the Great Depression and never wanted to go there again.

Mom knew better than anyone that there were huge gaps in my development, especially in the area of money. Ever since I was on my own, Mom collected receipts from me and helped file my taxes. When I was hurting financially, she often paid some of my monthly bills. She even opened a separate savings account at the Postal Credit Union and put a little of her own money away for me. She became frustrated by the end of 1982, when George forbade me from giving her any more information regarding my finances. I knew nothing about the full scope of my situation, so when George told me I couldn’t talk to her anymore about it, I, like his obedient child, complied. Quite frankly, my dear, George didn’t give a damn about alienating my mom in the process. Years later, I found a couple

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