Little Pink House_ A True Story of Defiance and Courage - Jeff Benedict [130]
The oral arguments were fairly uneventful. Both sides reiterated the cases they had made at the trial court, hoping to get a more favorable ruling this time around.
The real fun took place afterward. Bullock and Berliner took the group out for dinner. Matt Dery chose an Italian restaurant. The neighbors all felt that their attorneys had scored a lot of points before the appeals judges. Everyone felt confident that Beyer, Athenian, and the Cristofaros would end up getting their properties back, enabling the core of the neighborhood’s families to remain in place.
The more the group drank, the more it bragged. The dinner was just what Susette needed—a reason to smile.
Mid-December 2002
After nearly two months of hospitalization and rehab, Tim LeBlanc had rung up over $300,000 in medical bills. During that time he had progressed to the developmental stage of a four-year-old. He still had a long way to go and still required full-time care. The hospital recommended a nursing home capable of around-the-clock help and long-term rehabilitation. An administrator explained all this to Susette. She knew she had a big decision to make.
The man she had fallen in love with and lived with for three years was gone. The simple pleasures of life—conversation, walks, meals together, intimacy—were now just a memory. Yet there was no way she could turn her back on LeBlanc now. He needed her.
Susette told the hospital administrator she didn’t want LeBlanc in a nursing home. The administrator asked Susette what other option she had in mind. Susette insisted on bringing LeBlanc home to 8 East Street to live with her.
“He is permanently disabled,” the administrator pointed out. “He’ll be confined to the house. He needs someone to prepare his meals and help him go to the bathroom. The situation requires a full-time nurse.”
“What are you, nuts?” Susette countered. “I am a nurse!”
The week before Christmas 2002, the hospital released LeBlanc to Susette’s care. LeBlanc was permanently disabled and had no health insurance. Plus his health-care costs were going to continue to mount. This was another headache Susette had to endure.
Fortunately, Susette had complete medical coverage through her employer. If she married LeBlanc right away she could enroll him on her health-care plan with eligibility starting in January, and that would at least cover his future medical bills.
Two days after LeBlanc was discharged, Susette drove him to Maine and married him in a private ceremony. She had been looking forward to becoming LeBlanc’s wife one day so that he could take care of her—fulfilling her financial, physical, and emotional needs. None of that was possible now. Ironically, she would resume the role she had played in her previous marriages, taking care of her husband.
Only this time the needs were more acute. She would be more like a mother than a wife to LeBlanc. For starters, she had to deal with the medical bills he had racked up since the accident. After convincing one of the hospitals that had treated LeBlanc to forgive roughly $150,000 in medical bills, Susette set up a payment plan with the other hospital, agreeing to make monthly installments in the range of $100 until the six-figure bill was met.
She set up a room for him at her place, and she arranged for people to be with him when she had to work. No one in the neighborhood spent more time helping LeBlanc than Von Winkle. He wouldn’t visit at the hospital, but now that LeBlanc was home, Von Winkle wouldn’t leave him alone. He took LeBlanc for car rides, he stayed at his bedside making small talk, and he cleared out space in a nearby building he owned, making way for Susette to store all of LeBlanc’s tools. It would be years, if ever, before LeBlanc would be able to use them again.
Susette figured out that Von Winkle had a difficult time expressing love verbally. But he had no trouble showing it. She