May 1, 2013

Wednesday May 1, 2013

My phone rang at 5:45 am. When I answered I could hear Tyler crying hysterically. He had just left his house for his third day at his new job. He told me in between sobs that he thinks he is going crazy and he doesn't know what to do. I asked him if he was okay and he said he was driving to Kingsley to meet his boss, but he can't seem to pull himself together. When I asked him if he could work, he said he didn't think so. I told him to please come to my house and we can figure things out together, and offered to call his boss for him. He was appreciative of that and gave me the phone number. He said he was okay to drive, but I offered to come get him anyway.

We hung up and I called his boss who was very understanding. Tyler showed up about ten minutes later and I gave him a big hug. He told me that his roommate was sleeping on the couch and Tyler had woken him to make sure he would take care of the dogs today. The roommate immediately yelled at Ty, telling him to stay away from him and never talk to him or else he will come off the couch swinging. Tyler has no idea what is going on with his roommate. In the past few days, Ty has found 2 of his friends a good job - which they didn't show up for on the very first day- and they are avoiding him at home and not returning any of his phone calls or texts. This is all out of the blue and Tyler has no idea why. It's extremely hurtful to him because this is supposed to be the best friend he has here.

I asked Tyler if he could stick it out like he had done before and work it out, and he said no way. He was tired of all the drama. He just wants to be by himself, change his phone number and become a recluse. What he really wants to do is move out of the county, or at least to another state, but he realizes that's not possible.

We sat at the kitchen table and worked out his finances. I then hopped on craigslist.com and looked for places to rent. I didn't have to look far....there's not much available in the backwoods of Northern Michigan. I found two places - one about 35 minutes south, and one only four miles away. It had no picture, but the price was right. The house address was right in the ad, so we decided at 7:30 in the morning, to drive by and check it out.

The house was adorable! A little 2 bedroom, 1 bath, barely 1,000 square feet. It had a nice enclosed sunroom and two large, ancient apple trees in the back. It also sits on three acres.

I called the phone number listed in the ad and spoke to a woman. She said that she has a couple who are interested in the house, and she was supposed to meet with them this afternoon to see if they had their finances in order. She asked a bunch of questions about Tyler and was very concerned with his age and if he had a reliable source of income. I asked her to call me back when she heard from the couple.

It was around 1:00 and we hadn't heard back from her. Tyler was getting anxious, and he asked me to call her again. When I spoke to her, she said she was heading to the house and asked if we wanted to come have a look inside. Tyler went to the bank and took his money out and we drove over. The inside is dated, but Tyler loved it. We both agreed that this house would be perfect for him. Tyler talked with her a long while. She also spoke to me separately while he was having a look around. I told her that Tyler moved out of my house after turning 18, and he has been on his own every since. She was very impressed with him - that he was so young and so responsible!

She told Tyler that is was a month-to-month lease (even more perfect!), and he would be responsible for all bills including electric and propane. She said she really needed to meet with this other couple before renting the house to Tyler since she had been talking to them first. Tyler then told her that he would love to move in today, and he has all the money - in cash - with him. She looked very surprised and said "Really?? Well, in that case.....it's yours!"

We moved all his belongings out of his old house and into the new one that day. He was ecstatically happy and relieved to be out on his own. As he was gathering the last of his things from the old place, he left a note telling his roommates not to contact him because he had moved to Alaska; and with that, placed the key on the counter and closed the door behind him.