Wendy’s TDCJ Wedding Adventures

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People who love an inmate or an addict are the strongest people I’ve ever met…

Everyday across America people who love an inmate or an addict go to work. They put their normal faces on and hide their pain and sorrow. They have bills to pay and the obligations to address. They are also living in a world they never expected devoid of structure and any degree of predictability.

I noticed the similarities of these two groups of people years ago. One set of people who love an inmate and the other set of people who love an addict.

You see up to 90% of my clients marry an inmate. I’m often the one person that they can confide in. I don’t judge anyone. My twin sister and I have both shared a painful path that may be different from that of people who love an inmate but I can assure you that loving an addict is also a minefield of painful perseverance that most people will never understand.

Both people who love an inmate and people who love an addict rarely have any degree of support from society as a whole. We are a unique group of people that are living proof that love is the strongest emotion regardless how difficult and painful it may be to love an inmate or an addict or a combination of the two scenarios. Why a combination of both an addict and an inmate? Because it’s not uncommon for an inmate to be incarcerated because of their addiction. In fact it’s quite common. Our baby brothers son, Frankie is in Union County Jail for violating probation for drugs then stealing a vehicle and driving through a bar to rob it. Our brother is beside himself with grief as is his wife. They’ve had 8 years with their sons addiction. Cindy and I have had 20 years of her daughters addiction. Addicts destroy your life and your health.

For twenty years my twin sister and I have been through raw & sheer hell. Why? Her youngest daughter, Stephaney is an addict. You will never know the raw sheer trauma of raising a child who becomes an addict UNLESS you’ve lived it. I’m damn serious.

Our entire lives have been affected by the choices of addicts. What do I mean by that? Our mother, Sharon Hill sold (that’s right I said sold this sale was recorded) all 4 of her children for $50 each. Why was this taped? Because our grandfather used that tape to silence us while reminding us “no one wants you not even your own mother. You are bought and paid for. Don’t ever forget it.” Our grandfather (fathers father) was a Pedophile.

At 15 years old, Wendy and Cindy ran away with the clothes on our backs. We had no money. We had no jobs. We had no car. We had no one to run to. I was pregnant. My father upon realizing this attempted to beat me into a miscarriage. Cindy jumped in front of me and suffered a beating herself. We ran. We ate out of dumpsters and hid from other people ashamed & dirty but alive.

Today homeless teens aren’t unusual or even rare but 43 years ago, a pair of twins who had been badly beaten were found by 2 Azle police officers who upon looking at us took us rather than back home to the Women’s Haven in Fort Worth, TX.

From the shelter to a $50 car we lived in for 9 months, we moved into an apt in the worst area of Fort Worth and couldn’t afford electricity for 3.5 years. Cindy was raped in that apartment. This tragedy would become a blessing because my family had taken my daughter, the same child my father had attempted to beat out of me that night in Azle, Anna from me. My father, his mother and father and even my aunt were hellbent to get Anna from me. No one in my family wanted me to keep the child Cindy and I had run away in order to save. They fought me over her and not having the income to fight back, they eventually won and took Anna from me. Leigh Ann filled the void losing Anna had left in my broken heart. I will never forgive them for what they took from me as long as I live and breathe but Cindy’s pregnancy healed my broken heart.

A lot of people won’t understand that Cindy and I raised our children as a team but it’s true. Cindy has 2 daughters, Leigh Ann and Stephaney. I have one son, Robert. We’ve never been lucky but we’ve always been resilient. We were determined to be the parents we had never known and honored our commitment to do so.

No parent expects a child they’ve raised to become an addict. Addiction doesn’t discriminate. Many people label people who love an addict as enablers. It’s easy for them to cast stones because they have no idea of the difficulty (mainly mothers of addicts as I’ve rarely met a father of an addict searching the streets over the past twenty years) as weak when in fact these warriors are strong. Mothers of addicts don’t give up easily. Their health suffers. Their finances are compromised paying for rehab after rehab. They feel isolated. Alone. Their own family members turn against them because they can’t stop trying to save an addict. They seek normality. They cannot buy peace. They become fearful of phone calls. They mourn the death of a child they’ve raised while they are still alive. This grief can best be described as Complicated Grief Syndrome. More often than not Complicated Grief Syndrome becomes Broken Heart Syndrome. Mothers of addicts health suffers greatly. It’s not uncommon for mothers of addicts to suffer heart attacks, strokes and cancer diagnosis.

My twin sister and I were at TDCJ Robertson Unit in Abilene, Texas when we read a group text “Mimis I’ve taken all of my anxiety meds because I don’t want to grow up and be like my mother.” Makenna one of the twins would be the first near death victim of Stephaney. We barely saved her. She was hospitalized for a month then moved by ambulance to Mesa Springs for suicidal ideation. She had never been away from Cindys home. You see Steph became pregnant at 15 and it was with twins. CPS was going to take the twins, Maryssa & Makenna. Cindy and I were 40 years old. Cindy saw Wendy and Cindy in NICU rather than Maryssa and Makenna. Cindy knew that if she didn’t act quickly those twins would suffer the same consequences Wendy and Cindy did BECAUSE our mother was an addict who abused, neglected then finally sold us. I called an attorney. Cindy has had full custody of Maryssa and Makenna since birth.

Millions of grandparents are raising their grandchildren because their children became addicts. Millions. Many without child support. Michael Wayne Scherer Jr upon learning Steph was pregnant, went to Cindy’s house and beat Stephaney trying to force a miscarriage just as my father had 43 years ago. He failed to do so. Michael pled down and copped a plea of Assault On A Family. The family was Steph and the twins. I used that to prevent him ever having visitation with Maryssa and Makenna in the custody hearing in Parker County, Texas. The attorney argued “no judge will grant that.” I argued “Cindy and I paid you to get this done and you are going to admit the plea deal he made into evidence and get it done. I’m not asking you. Instead I’m telling you.” The judge granted no visitation. Neither Michael or Stephaney ever paid child support on the twins. Deadbeat parent’s both of them. The hardship of raising a second generation of children fell on Cindy & Steve Daniel. Cindy had to give up her job to raise the twins. Steve Daniel a truck driver was laid off from Albertsons after 23 years and took a job for KBR as a fuel tank driver in Balad, Iraq. You can Google Steve Daniel Caught In The Crossfire to find out how much Steve gave up to save Cindy and the twins by taking on a very dangerous job in order to save his family. Love is sacrifice.

Addicts are selfish. They are narcissistic. They don’t care who they destroy. They have no remorse. Ask me I know. In 1989, I hired a private investigator to find MY MOTHER. I wanted to confront her. I wanted to know WHY she had sold us. She wanted $1500 to meet me. Cindy and our baby brother, Jerry were furious about this meeting but I was determined to find the truth. I wanted to hear it from Sharon’s mouth.

“EXPERIENCE is EXPENSIVE, because WHEN you LEARN something the HARD way, you NEVER forget the COST.” Cindy Daniel.

I didn’t get the answers I expected or wanted. Sharon took the $1500 and her toxic tongue and left that restaurant in Solvang, CA and was involved in a life changing accident. Her mother, Anna Mae Tinney called my home in San Clemente where my furious sister was waiting on me and told her “your mother isn’t expected to live. Please come to Santa Maria.” I was angrily driving from Solvang to San Clemente. I also never wanted to see Sharon again. Cindy feeling sorry for her mother who we had no idea had legally adopted our half sister, Tamara that no one told us about until 2007, convinced Cindy to convince me to backtrack. I didn’t want to but I did. A trust was established to benefit Sharon’s 4 children. Remember though 1 of those 4 children had been legally adopted. When Anna Mae Tinney and I set up that trust as payback for the children nobody wanted, Anna Mae DELIBERATELY didn’t advise me that Tamara was NOT entitled because Anna Mae had in fact legally adopted and effectively saved Tammy from the fate Wendy, Cindy & Jerry faced as children no one wanted. It wasn’t until 2007 when Sharon’s half sister, Nancy Tabor Tinney called me to tell me “Tammy is double dipping” that I had any idea Anna Mae had legally adopted Tammy at 10 years old. Anna Mae effectively not only saved Tammy at 10 but also later in life as Tammy benefited upon Anna Mae’s death as one of her daughters in an estate split between Sharon, Nancy & Tammy. Sharon’s split went into the Sharon Hill Trust Estate. You see Sharon lost 60% of her cognitive abilities from the accident which left her an incapacitated person in the state of California. Sharon is still alive today. Had she died that night as she was expected to… Wendy, Cindy & Jerry’s lives would have dramatically been improved by benefit of that trust money. But you see we’ve never been lucky.

How would that trust estate have changed OUR lives? Stephaney’s father had sent Cindy, Leigh Ann & Stephaney on a holiday to me in San Clemente and planned to wipe out their house leaving nothing not even a fork, can of green beans or ice tray. Larry took Cindy, Leigh Ann and Stephaneys personal belongings and anything under that roof. He even stripped the car I had left in TX. I moved Cindy in with me. Larry never paid one penny of child support on Stephaney. Why? He filed for divorce in TX lying and said he had custody of Stephaney and the idiot judge didn’t ask for evidence.

Meanwhile I was in a violent marriage. Jerry joined the Navy to escape. So you see that money would HAVE changed OUR lives. But we’ve never been lucky and have had to fight to protect that trust over 30 years never benefitting one nickel from it while everyone not entitled to it has continued to try to steal it all of these years.

Loving an addict is HELL. You can divorce a spouse you cannot divorce a child you raised who BECAME an addict.

For twenty years Wendy and Cindy have searched the streets, visited psych wards, jails & rehabs and begged DA’s for prison. Steph has been arrested over 20 times and even stole a semi and NEVER went to prison. I walk into prisons 5-6 days a week and constantly wonder if prison would have changed our outcome with Steph???

Addicts are the most self destructive people I’ve ever encountered. I now know why no one is looking for homeless people wandering the streets. I’m one of them. Cindy is too. We are sick of trying to Save Stephaney.

I’ve always been honest and candid. Two years ago I noticed that my clients marrying an inmate were by far more compassionate about our struggles with Steph than my traditional clients from Texas Twins Events. Why? Because they love an inmate. They too are judged by people who have no idea how hard it is to love an inmate. Stupid scripted shows like Love After Lockup depict anyone who loves an addict as desperately lonely or mentally unstable. This is INACCURATE and UNTRUE. I know my clients. I know how determined, resilient, loyal, independent and dedicated they are. Scripted reality shows are B.S. The reality is that loving an inmate REQUIRES tenacity, determination and grit. So does loving an addict. The difference between these two groups is that people who love an inmate KNOW when an inmate will be released OR if it’s a lifer they ACCEPT there will NEVER be a release. People who love an addict have NO TIMELINE OF GRIEVING. We mourn indefinitely UNTIL we get that FINAL PHONE CALL.

I’ve had mothers of addicts tell me “I’m relieved it’s finally over.” In fact a mother who had traveled with her daughter to marry an inmate at TDCJ Coffield Unit a few weeks ago told me just that. The circumstances of that day were beyond unique. 1. My client without asking or advising me had mailed her marriage license to the Unit. Effectively it was lost. 2. TDCJ does not allow guests. 3. My clients mother was allowed in due to a recent warden change and short staff at the Unit. 4. Because the license wasn’t with the client she was nearly cancelled and had to file for a duplicate marriage license and finally 5. The mother and daughter were leaving a wedding at a prison to go make funeral arrangements for the son who had after 24 years of addiction finally died. You can’t make this shit up. From a prison wedding to a funeral? YES.

In April 2023 Steph had decided to leave Oxford House (a sober living facility) and because Cindy had helped her increase and effectively repair her credit, move into the first apartment Steph had ever had at 36 years old after 20 years of homelessness. Cindy & I furnished and I decorated that apartment. Steph had obtained a job at a nice steakhouse and a car and finally an apartment. We were relieved and thrilled that finally Steph had overcome addiction. The twins were talking to her again. Leigh Ann was cautious but Cindy & Wendy had thought we won. We were wrong.

Due to unpredictable behavior, Cindy popped Steph with a drug test. It was positive. For nearly 3 weeks we have no idea where she is, who she is with or what she is doing. Here’s what we do know… within 7 days of that drug test Steph was fired, she wrecked her car and she spiraled. She’s facing homelessness again.

This could’ve been the greatest comeback story ever but it isn’t because no matter what you do you cannot save an addict…

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Complicated Grief Syndrome. What is it & how does it affect people who love an addict?

I’ve encountered victims of Complicated Grief Syndrome many times throughout my life but never considered that my twin sister and I were affected by it. Why? Because for our entire lives we have used compartmentalization and disassociation to “put away” things we cannot deal with in order to function and live normally.

Many people are often shocked about my candor and transparency but shouldn’t be. Cindy and I are and always have been raw and authentic. We raised our three adult children as a twin team and Cindy took on the raising of her daughter, Stephaney’s twin daughters at birth. The twins will be 19 in September. Many grandparents are raising their grandchildren because their adult children are addicts. The numbers would stagger you. The sheer numbers of aunts, uncles, grandparents and others raising someone else’s children continues to grow.

I recall a production executive once telling me while Cindy and I were filming our television pilot, Pawning Planners, “Wendy you are far too honest and we think it would be best if others didn’t know you have problems.” I laughed. We all have problems. Some of us far more than others. I don’t hide any details about my life nor does Cindy. All of our social media profiles are PUBLIC.

In May 1971 (bear with me on the relevance here) our mother, Sharon Tinney Hill sold all four of her children for $50 each to L.B. Thomas (our fathers father). This conversation was recorded by L.B. Stay tuned to find out that he recorded this transaction for a reason and intent. What was it? To use against Wendy, Cindy and Tammy to remind us “no one wants you not even your own mother and I’ve bought and paid for you.”

Assuming that this tape had been destroyed years ago, you can imagine our shock at finding it last year in a storage unit that our father had insisted my twin sister, Cindy get for him when his live in girlfriend, Gretta Fern Ozee passed away. Last year while headed to TDCJ Terrell Unit, I got the call from my brothers wife that our father had died. A father that never protected us. A father with a violent temper. A father that was so hellbent on ignoring the fact that his father had sexually abused Wendy and Cindy after Tammy was adopted by our mothers mother that Wendy and Cindy ran with the clothes on our backs at 15 with no one to run to. Homeless and battered, the Azle Police Department uncertain of what to do with 2 battered teenagers took us to Women’s Haven. After leaving Womens Haven we lived in a $50 car until we could move into a ghetto apt that for 3.5 years we couldn’t afford to have the electricity turned on at. Cindy was raped in that dark apartment one night. Reopening the abuse we had endured all of those years at the hands of L.B. With a family that refused to protect us.

Many people say stupid things to you and we’ve heard plenty. “You need to forgive.” No we don’t. Most workaholics and overachievers are from horrific backgrounds. We are no different. Poverty fueled us to work harder, educate ourselves and crawl out of poverty singlehandedly.

We’ve never fully forgotten our childhoods although I wish we could but finding that tape all these years later reopened old wounds. Realizing that we were at our lowest point searching the streets for Cindy’s daughter who at that time had once again relapsed and became homeless again at the same time our dad died and we paid for a funeral we were never going to attend then finding that damn tape was a literal trifecta of trauma for the Texas Twins.

Our intention was to clean it out but finding that tape was so traumatic we would wait another year before finding the courage to go back as the expense dragged on. What changed? How were we able to go back after a year? Last summer my niece showed up on one of my patios ready to get and receive our help detoxing and getting sober. For 18 years we have put her in rehab after rehab. Visited her in psych wards for meth induced psychosis and ran our companies trying to look normal in an abnormal world while at the same time going through a vicious cycle of rehab, sobriety, relapse then homelessness again.

The problem with loving an addict is the addict doesn’t give a shit what they do to the people they are supposed to love. Sharon didn’t give a damn about her four children either but Cindy saved the twins because Cindy and Wendy saw Maryssa and Makenna in Harris Hospital as ourselves. They had to be saved. We had no one to save us. I called an attorney immediately.

Last summer we took Stephaney to Millwood to dry out. From there to Volunteers of America which is located in every major city in the U.S. and is FREE.

Transitioning from VOA, Stephaney moved to Oxford House a sober living environment. She found a job, bought an older car and saved up to move into her very first apartment.

Cindy and I furnished that apartment Stephaney’s first apartment she had ever gotten on her own after nearly 20 years of addiction issues that had greatly affected our families. We were happy and excited about this. Joyous even but our joy would soon turn to sorrow about ten days ago.

I travel daily for my work. During the week to prisons on weekends to county jails and venues. I work 7 days a week. I field hundreds of emails, DM’s, & phone calls each and every day. I am the most sought after prison wedding planner and officiant in the United States. Why? Because no one does what I do for my clients. What do I mean by that? From providing a ring at no expense to gifts on wedding day to creating a 2 warehouse inventory of bouquets and more to ensure that my clients have bridal photos with “all the fixings” to even treating them to a celebratory meal because I’m often the only person celebrating with them and for them, I do weddings differently.

When you travel thousands of miles each and every week to locations you are often not at home. You sleep in hotels. You plan the grocery shopping and housekeeping at odd hours of the night because time is the one thing you never have enough of.

While Cindy helps me as much as she can she has twins still living at home. One of whom refuses to get her license. Cindy after nearly 40 years is still committed to being a driver. We live about 25 minutes from one another. We are closer for all we’ve overcome and ensured.

Last week Wendy and Cindy went back into that storage unit. Last week Wendy told Cindy “Steph is behaving oddly it’s been going on for about ten days I think we need to do another drug test.” I had waited to tell Cindy this because a helluva lot has happened recently. I’m May I flew to California to move her oldest daughter and youngest granddaughter back to Texas. Marital problems had affected Leigh Ann’s life. Orchestrating 4 days off for this with my schedule was tight and stressful. I’ve never used a sick day or rescheduled anything in my life. My work ethics are stellar. I was still exhausted from moving Stephaney out of Oxford House in April then spending every free moment decorating and or buying essentials to feather her nest. But I powered on…

Three years ago while driving Stephaney to another rehab in Oklahoma, Cindy suffered 3 heart attacks in my suv but refused medical treatment until she knew that Steph was locked down in the rehab facility. I was terrified about losing my twin. By the Grace of God, she made it to surgery and survived. Two years later, my husband collapsed and suffered two heart attacks. I was alone with him too. I can’t put into words what being the only person to save two people you love is like or how traumatic it is. You will never understand it unless you’ve experienced it.

Loving an addict is a toxic relationship when the addict is a child you’ve raised. You can divorce a spouse. You can’t divorce a child who became an adult that destroyed any degree of normality you’ve fought your entire life to obtain.

Parents of addicts grieve the deaths of their children long before they die. They grieve the children they’ve lost to addiction. They mentally prepare themselves for “the call.” They know one day the call will in fact come. They spend thousands of dollars on expensive treatments trying to save someone that doesn’t want to be saved. They cry a River of tears but at some point accept the fate of loving an addict.

Loving an addict destroys your health and your finances. They don’t care and never accept responsibility. Our mother didn’t. Our father had a drinking problem. They never had any degree of accountability for their actions or the impact their choices had on Wendy, Cindy, Tammy and Jerry. Tammy was saved by being legally adopted by our mothers mother as she was a step sister. Wendy and Cindy ran away and Jerry joined the Navy at 16.

I often hear “addiction runs in families” it’s a lame excuse. Addiction is a choice. No one forces someone to experiment with drugs. I’m not going to argue my view with anyone. Cindy and I crawled out of hell and never once considered using drugs to cope. Ever. I also hear “a traumatic event or bad childhood created an addict.” Again I call B.S. our children had the structure, stability, support and love we had never known. We were hellbent on being the parents we would’ve wanted and are.

I was at TDCJ Coffield Unit in Tennessee Colony when Cindy called to tell me “the drug test was positive for Morphine & Cocaine.” She was also devastated. I was hours away at a prison. My sister was alone with a daughter who had destroyed this entire family for nearly 20 years. It was a dealbreaker. Cindy demanded Stephaney stop using drugs immediately. Stephaney refused. Now you see where we are yet again depressed, disappointed & lost. Loving an addict is raw hell. I’ve had mothers tell me at funerals I was conducting “I’m glad it’s over I can finally sleep. It was either prison or a plot but regardless I have closure and can move on.” I don’t judge anybody. I know their path and I know their pain.

Mother’s Day as well as Father’s Day are difficult for me. For many years I was both to my son and Cindys daughters as was she. We never had a mother or father to celebrate. We never will.

Matthew and Steve had no children of their own and yet they married Wendy and Cindy with Leigh Ann, Stephaney & Robert then Cindy took on the role and responsibility of raising the twins, Maryssa and Makenna. Effectively our husband married right into a carnival of chaos by choosing to marry us and stayed around. Cindy has been married nearly 30 years. Me about 20. We never had the weddings we give to our clients. That’s why we created Texas Twins Events.

Many people don’t understand my creative business developments and a few even laughed. In 2009, my first business, Texas Twins Treasures raised a few eyebrows. Why? My husband is a real estate developer and builder and in 2007-08 he lost his businesses. To save our home, I sold my own treasures. Couture clothing, jewelry and even home furnishings & furniture.

By 2010 I had to create another company, Defending Debt Lawsuit Consultants LLC. Why? Because I needed to defend my husband against 12 debt lawsuits and did. I’m resilient. I’m also smart.

How did we meet? I was divorcing and couldn’t afford a $1400 car payment so I went to the dealership and got a job selling them and hired my print ad photographer and ran ads in country clubs direct marketing affluent buyers. I sold Matthew not one but 2 Cadillacs.

In my 20’s I realized to get a better job I needed a better wardrobe so I became a clothing model. At 16 I was plucked from behind a Whataburger counter to film 5 commercials with Mel Tillis. My life has been one surprise after the next but after defending Matthew I developed thyroid cancer and a lump in my breast. Fearing the worst, I dissolved my lawsuit company and sold the Lakeside House. From my hospital bed Cindy asked “what if you don’t die? You will be bored. We’ve always worked.” I created Texas Twins Events.

In 2015 after years of bouncing checks and broken promises, Cindy came up with the idea to merge Texas Twins Treasures & Texas Twins Events to create The Pawning Planners. No more hot checks & broken promises.

You see resilience, perseverance and grit were the backbones of the Texas Twins. What we couldn’t fix was Stephaney. We can’t fix her now and with dread wait on the next phone call. Friday I went in with first responders. The apt I had so carefully decorated and was so excited for as was Cindy was trashed. She was high and refused medical treatment. There’s nothing we can do now other than wait with a sense of impending disaster for what comes next with Stephaney

You can’t love an addict into sobriety. I don’t care how resilient and determined you are. You can’t compartmentalize loving an addict because trauma is a daily occurrence. What you can do is realize you did everything humanly possible hoping for a better outcome and have no regrets or second guessing about where you’ve been and what you’ve been through…

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Travels Of A Texas Twin, Weddings With Wendy Wortham…

I’m frequently contacted by media combined with inquiries from prospective clients. At any given time I’m juggling 70-100 clients marrying mostly in correctional facilities (85-90%) or in the free world (venues, parks, etc). As you might assume, media is in my rear view mirror and for obvious reasons not a priority to me.

I work 7 days a week. Weekdays I’m in correctional facilities. Weekends I’m at venues and county facilities. It’s rare for ICE or federal to schedule on a weekend but over the years it’s happened.

My schedule is tight. So tight that I stack clients at the same unit and several units on the same day. On weekends I schedule venues and correctional facilities on the same day. Meaning I’m not on location for more than 1-2 hours before heading to my next location.

A few years ago I was contacted by a journalist who had no idea how to obtain clearance into a correctional facility. This is more common than you might think. Someone sitting in their office unwilling to do the research themselves expecting me to do their job for them. I walked her through obtaining access and entry and was later surprised to learn that she would be riding in my suv with my twin sister and I AND that she was vegan and hadn’t packed any vegan food. I don’t roll with vegan food and had 4 units. This was an 18 hour day. My road trip food is beef jerky, nuts, cheese sticks and fruit. I don’t have time to find a vegan restaurant on a stacked scheduling day.

A few years ago I was also contacted by an “executive director” who sent me a DM through Instagram that he was “casting a prison based show.” I knew he was full of it. I’ve worked in front of a camera since I was 16 with Mel Tillis filming Whataburger commercials. There isn’t anything about production or the entertainment industry that I don’t know. If you aren’t familiar with the term “casting,” I will enlighten you. There has to be a greenlight in place (network money) to fund the show. For years now I’ve seen so many production companies saying they are casting when in fact they are fishing for talent pretending to be casting. Know what questions to ask when you’re dealing with an “entertainment executive.” I do. This knucklehead thought he was playing me for over a week during wedding season when in fact he had sent me an unsigned contract that lit me up so much I decided to play along while busting it at 7 weddings until cutting him loose. He was the most entitled, pompous, arrogant jerk I’ve ever dealt with in 40 plus years of working in front of a camera. No shit!

Media has “suddenly” realized or recognized that millions of people love an inmate. Hey better late than never but I protect my clients from predatory production companies. I educate them about one sided contracts too.

When you juggle as many commitments as I do, you are organized and focused. You don’t waste time on people that don’t matter to you and I don’t. Since The NY Times article, I’ve had people contacting me because “they want to do what I do.” Hilarious. What they really “want” is to be successful “doing what I do.” I’m not a teacher or a mentor. I’m a businesswoman that worked her ass off to find success. I’m transparent, candid, honest, loyal and driven. I didn’t magically “become successful.” No one does. At the inception of Texas Twins Events I knew damn well I would lose money for 3-5 years before turning a profit AND I was right. I was also committed AF. Too many people aren’t but I’m not the average person. I go above and beyond for my clients and I’m thus internationally sought after solely by client referrals. Surprised? Don’t be. I earned my stellar reputation the hard way by rolling up my sleeves and growing organically.

It’s wedding season. I don’t take on planning events for free world clients because I don’t have months to spend on one event. I address several events in the same day 7 days a week. Clients marrying an inmate require me to be a planner because they know what they want but have no idea how to obtain what they want. I walk them through a very confusing paperwork process than can take months and even up to a year.

Before using the contact us link on any of my sites, bother to tell me why you are contacting me, what you need and the location. Inquiries stating “I’m interested” or “can you tell me more about your business” while you are on a very informative website that literally lays out what I do and who I do it for will go unanswered. If you don’t know what I do and who I do it for AFTER being on my websites, I don’t have the time or the patience to educate you.

Wendy M Wortham

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Love WILL Find A Way Ellis, Crain, Ramsey, To Robertson Unit Travels Of A Prison Wedding Officiant…

Last week was chock full of reschedules. It’s essential to arrive early for your prison wedding. Why? Because if you are 20 minutes late, your wedding will be cancelled. Weather can also be a factor to reschedules. Why? Because if we can’t get to the Unit, you can’t get married. 

On September 20th, I was planning to marry my beautiful bride at TDCJ Cleveland Unit. Flooding changed our schedules. No one expects flash floods in Texas but they occur frequently. When flash floods closes highways, its often impossible to get to the Unit as it was on the 20th this month. Tomorrow, I’m headed back to Cleveland Unit to finally marry my clients and looking forward to meeting them. 

Starting my day last Tuesday at 4AM, I headed to my first wedding at Ellis Unit Huntsville, Texas. Melissa was excitedly looking forward to this wedding and had spent the night in Huntsville. I was 3.5 miles from the Unit and getting an early start.

I’m always early by at least 1/2 hour to Units. I overestimate my timelines by at least an hour to factor in stopping for gas or the bathroom.

I have to be on a timeline at all times across the highways and backroads to not only Texas Prisons but also Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri and Louisiana as I’m not geographically limited and if I can drive to the prison rather than flying I do. It’s far less expensive for me to drive. 

I arrived at 8:20AM at Ellis Unit and sent a text to my bride. I had estimated about 15 minutes to slap on my makeup and planned to walk up to the guard tower at 8:40AM to check in for our 9:00AM scheduled ceremony. At 8:45AM, I sent another text growing concerned now that my client was running late. I decided to check in with the guard tower and let the Unit know that I was on site waiting for my client. I was now nervously waiting to be honest with you and concerned. 

At 8:55AM, I called my client again. She was running 10-15 minutes late. The WAS A PROBLEM. TDCJ Units regularly cancel scheduled ceremonies if either the client or the Officiant are 20 minutes or more late.

At 9:17AM, I again called my client who was now on site and in the parking lot. I’m now really nervous about a cancellation. We walk to the guard tower together at 9:18AM to check in and we are asked to wait. I continue to grow more and more concerned. At 9:25AM, the Chaplain comes out to escort us into the screening area. At 9:37AM, the Chaplain tells us both “have a nice day” and walks away from the intake area. At 9:45AM, I walk to the Wardens Office to ask “do we have an escort? The Chaplain has left and I’m uncertain as to who will be escorting us to the inmate.” I begin counting quarters for the Unit photos and stop when the wardens secretary tells me “we won’t have an escort for at least an hour and a half because we are doing a head count.” I stop counting quarters and nearly start crying. Why? Because I don’t have an “hour and a half minimum” to wait on a head count.

I was due at TDCJ Crain Unit at 1:30PM nearly three hours from TDCJ Ellis Unit and my 9AM wedding has been cancelled. I now (warily) must advise my client of the situation.

The wardens secretary walks with me to advise Melissa “if you had been here at 9, we could have whisked him in here but, since you were late, you will need to reschedule.” My client was crushed. Devastated. 

I am going to go over the need for you to be early ONE MORE TIME. If you are late, your wedding ceremony WILL be canceled. Leave a minimum of 30 minutes earlier than necessary to avoid a cancellation. If I arrive and you don’t or you are late and the wedding is cancelled, you will need to rebook and repay for services. 

Trying to comfort my bride while walking he through intake past the guard tower into the parking lot. I now have to run from Ellis to Crain literally hauling a$$. It’s 10:12AM. I’m due in Gatesville at 1:30PM. 

Six months ago, Gary had retained me to officiate his wedding at Crain Unit. Setback after setback later, Gary was finally going to marry Amee! 

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How it was AND how it’s going…

Nearly a year ago I got the call my father was dying. Cindy and I knew we would get the debt and none of the assets. That’s our lives. We always get the shitty end of the stick. In fact, we expect it.

After getting my client married at TDCJ Terrell Unit, taking her and her twin daughters to lunch and completing bridal photos, I sat alone in my suv and called Monroe, NC to get the funeral home to go pick up the body. I tried to pay them THEN. They wouldn’t let me. I wanted CLOSURE. I didn’t give a damn what it would cost I wanted it over.

The next day I was scheduled at TDCJ Robertson Unit and in the middle of bridal photos when the funeral home “called to collect.” I used my platinum card to pay them with my name on it pay attention to that part because my name is why I started a Tik Tok. My original Tik Tok was wendymwortham which family members got banned because I was being honest. The first video on that account was me in a parking lot mad AF because the funeral home kept getting my name WRONG on the damn authorization form. I was alone, frustrated and had paid them more than they quoted while with my Robertson Unit clients to get CLOSURE. I didn’t care I wanted it over and done.

It took 4 authorization forms between 3 units to accomplish this task. In the midst of all of this I was as usual worrying about Stephaney. For 18 years Cindy and I have been worrying about Stephaney.

My blogs, my businesses and my life are a mix of family, clients, chaos and loving an addict. My entire life has been scarred due to addicts and 30 plus years ago my own twin sister didn’t know she was addicted to prescription pain medicine until she overdosed. She then quit cold turkey. We had no idea until that occurred she had a problem but upon realizing it changed it too. I don’t take pain meds and neither does she. Addiction IS a choice. No one can convince me otherwise.

At 15 years old and pregnant sitting in the shelter with Cindy I made a pact. “We won’t be like them. We won’t hit our children or be drunks or addicts. We will be the parents we never knew and the people we never met.” We kept that pact until an accident broke Cindy in half. She didn’t walk for nearly 2 years and those prescriptions are why and how she unknowingly became dependent on them.

No one speaks for the people who love an addict. They have no voice. Everywhere it’s all about the addict and not about the people who love an addict. The people traumatized and victimized by the addict are silenced. I changed the dynamics by documenting what loving an addict is like on my Tik Tok account. I didn’t care if addicts wanted to “bring the heat” and comment or others wanted to label me as an enabler. They didn’t know Jack shit about me and had no impact on my life whatsoever. Our journey IS our journey. It’s raw, candid, transparent and I make no apologies for my anger at addicts who refuse to accept responsibility or accountability for their actions. Our mother never did. She never will.

The first year of being homeless was pure survival. The shelter only allowed us to stay 6 weeks then we were homeless again. Living in the streets was hard but cleaning up in gas station bathrooms was how we kept jobs. We became waitresses so we wouldn’t starve and eventually got a shitty car we lived in until we could move into a shady apartment. We never could afford electricity. Cindy was raped coming home from her shift at ihop. I tripped over her in the dark. A few months later we were in a car accident and told she was pregnant.

Now it wasn’t only about us but also about Leigh Ann. Our entire lives have been spent surviving and raising 2 generations of kids with an addict once again affecting our lives. For four and half months since Stephaney showed up on my patio after being homeless nearly 2 years again I’ve been the cheerleader. Get her a job. A place to live. A car. Keep her sober. I’m effing exhausted. My pom Poms are out of streamers. Today I lost my shit on her after resolving an issue with a lost license in Rockwall. Why? She was upset about some stupid guy that has never done anything for her. Cindy and I are and have been the only ones who gave a shit about her and she’s worried that this idiot posted a photo with a girlfriend? I nearly slapped her.

Loving an addict is the most miserable, unrewarding and exasperating thing I’ve ever done in my entire life. They destroy your health. You lose any degree of peace in your life.

I can’t tell you the number of times I was meeting a client, walking into a venue or courthouse or onto a sound stage or standing in front of a film crew or had to walk out of my own house full of production people because I was getting yet another crazy ass phone call from Stephaney because there have been too many damn times. Cindy and I have had to act normal in abnormal situations for 18 years. It’s raw HELL.

I nearly lost Cindy due to a heart attack because she wouldn’t let me take her to an ER while driving Steph to yet another rehab in Oklahoma. A year later while telling me “trying to save Stephaney is going to give you a heart attack” my husband had 3 right in front of me. I was alone with both Cindy and Matthew when they both suffered several heart attacks. I will never get over the fear of being in that position. No one will understand how traumatic this is unless they’ve been through it.

I thrive in a structured environment. Predictability is crucial to me. Loving an addict is the most unpredictable thing you could ever imagine or endure unless you’ve done it you won’t get it.

I don’t know where this journey with Stephaney will go but 18 years is my limit. Cindys too. We’ve spent our entire lives focused on surviving or raising our children for all of these years. If Steph relapses again, we are clocking out. At almost 60 we are focusing on ourselves… we don’t know how much time we have left but by God we are going to live out the rest of our lives with peace, structure and predictability.

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When Something Is So Shocking It Reminds You Of A Lifetime Movie…

Last night Cindy called me and Leigh Ann after opening a life insurance policy in Maryssa’s name with the beneficiary being her boyfriend of less than 2 months. The policy amount was half a million dollars. We were immediately on Red Alert about this shocking development.

Maryssa’s mom, Stephaney has battled addiction for 18 years but 4.5 months ago finally came to my patio to seek help. She’s been sober 4 months. My twin sister (her mother) and I put her in detox then moved her to Volunteers of America (an organization I cannot say enough good things about) for 90 days before transitioning to an Oxford House at the tip of Westover Hills near my home.

Cindy and I helped Stephaney get a car due to the expense of Uber or Lyft. Steph had found a 2007 Mitsubishi Eclipse for $3500 but it’s had a few issues. The guy who sold it to Steph has fixed 3 things so far and not charged her anything to do so. Cindy and I were pretty sure “this guy likes Steph.” We were right because he finally asked her to dinner this past week.

Steph is struggling because one of the twins, Makenna still isn’t speaking to Stephaney after her entire lifetime of 18 years waiting for Stephaney to get it together. Makenna had hope for years but five years ago, Stephaney was still on paper (probation) in Cotton County, Oklahoma and sober due to mandatory drug testing. It would be the first time in the twins lives their mother was sober for 3.5 years. The day after mandatory testing was removed, Stephaney was back on drugs and Makenna was so devastated by this decision that she took all of her anxiety meds while Cindy was with me and clients at TDCJ Robertson Unit then sent a group text to Cindy and I. We barely saved Makenna she was hospitalized for 3 months then moved to Mesa Springs for suicidal ideation. Makenna may never trust Stephaney again to be a part of her life and it’s something neither Cindy, I or Stephaney can control.

Many of our social media connections and a few of my clients are recovering addicts who have families that “practiced” tough love. They still have no connection to their own families even though they are sober. Cindy and I have fought for 18 years to get Stephaney stable. 18 years of “looking normal” in front of our clients and the rest of our families. It’s taken a toll on both of us financially and emotionally. 24 rehabs at great financial expense since Stephaney after having the twins at 16 years old has never had health insurance and 31 involuntary commitments due to meth induced psychosis. It’s raw Hell loving an addict. Unless you’ve been through it you will never understand. Only someone who has loved an addict would. Steph has overdosed 4 times. Cindy and I have “gotten the call” 4 times.

I once had a production assistant tell me “Wendy we can’t let the networks know you have any problems.” I laughed at this ludicrous statement since 1. My blogs are diaries of my life and businesses and 2. Everyone has problems and 3. No one doesn’t have any problems. She was young and dumb in her 20’s assuming everyone lived a problem free life. What a fantasy.

My life has never been “problem free.” Cindys hasn’t either. There’s a reason we a “different.” The reason is where we came from. Our mother was a heroin addict who eventually sold all 4 of her children for $50 each. But it would be years prior to this sale of Sharon Hill neglecting Wendy, Cindy, Tammy & Jerry due to her addiction of losing or forgetting us in parks, padlocked closets and locked car trunks before she finally sold us to our grandfather, a Pedophile. “Bought and paid for” is a term he used to refer to my sisters and I until Tammy was saved by adoption from our mothers mother as she was a stepsister and not a child of our father at 10 years old. Cindy and I were 6. Jerry was 2. Our grandfather recorded this “sale.” Cindy found the tape when we were liquidating a storage unit she had been paying for at our fathers request after his death. The tape was in the storage Unit dated May 1971 with only Wendy, Cindy & Tammy’s name on it. The reason? We were the only ones forced to listen to the tape. We were the victims of a predator who reminded all 3 of us that we were barely worth $50 by playing that tape throughout our childhoods. Problem free? What an idiotic statement and belief. My life has never been problem free nor has Cindys or Jerry’s. We were the children no one wanted or cared about.

My contempt for family members who wouldn’t help us became rage so all consuming I stopped speaking for many years. No one would listen. Cindy spoke for me. A number of things led up to my decision not to speak so I will elaborate. First Tammy disappeared. Asking where she was resulted in a beating. Secondly since Tammy was our primary caretaker, Miss Dorothy was hired. A woman we were initially terrified of because she looked like a witch. Wild and long jet black hair so dark it was shocking. Equally long red fingernails. Sunken cheeks with cheekbones so strong her face was dramatically enhanced. Odd clothing we hadn’t seen before with flowing and layered skirts similar to Stevie Nicks. Ironically it would be Miss Dorothy who became the only positive influence in our young lives. She was loving, dedicated and cared about us. In fact, she cared so much that she was going to tell what was going on and told our dad which was why she was immediately fired and we never saw her again. Our father moved in one of his cousins, an angry drunk, Vern. We knew to be wary of his angry outbursts and stay away from him but I would earlier than Jerry and Cindy one morning in the kitchen. I was ironing my fathers clothes. We were maids at a very young age. Vern had hollered “get off your ass and make me some coffee.” I did and not knowing it would burn the counter, set the coffee pot on the Formica counter accidentally burning a circle on the counter. Vern punched me with such force that I was knocked into the wall which brought my father into the kitchen asking “what did that dumb ass do this time?” Vern pointed at the counter. Our father regularly beat us with a razor strap, his fists or whatever was handy. Our grandmother used a purple hairbrush. Now Vern like everyone else could do whatever he wanted too. We had no escape from the Hell we were locked into as children.

School was no better. Cindy and I walked miles to and from school. We were regularly beaten up on our travels by a group of hoodlums. It would be 5th grade when the decision to “fight back” occurred to Cindy. She explained why to me. “We are beaten up and assaulted by everyone around us at home. If we don’t defend ourselves at school we will never get away from this. We are worth defending.” She was right and her reasoning would be how we finally stopped getting beat up. In 6th grade since we were immediately separated upon entering school it wouldn’t be Cindy but instead Wendy on my way to Special Ed since I still refused to speak who was cornered. “You’re so ugly your own mother left you.” I picked her up and threw her into a brick wall not knowing how much rage I actually had in me. I was suspended but didn’t care. The rock throwing that resulted in a scar under my right eye after one student put broken glass in the dirt clog stopped. Everyday Cindy and I ran from bullies either beating us or throwing rocks. Throwing Vickie stopped all of that.

It would be at the end of 6th grade our father up and moved us to Oklahoma City. Our mothers mother was trying to get custody of Cindy, Jerry & I. We wouldn’t know this for many many years. Our aunt Mildred & uncle Bob lived in Oklahoma. The only meals we had there were free lunches ar school. I found the first teacher in my life who helped me overcome my traumatic stutter and finally speak again too. This same teacher would also save me when at school I began my menstrual cycle early not knowing what was wrong with me but believing God was punishing me due to the years of abuse at the hands of our grandfather while no one did anything to stop it. Not other relatives. Not neighbors. Not teachers. No one except Miss Dorothy had ever tried to intervene.

For a year in an Oklahoma trailer park our miserable lives became more miserable. Aunt Mildred didn’t like children. Uncle Bob saw “free labor.” We swept his chemical plant. We cleaned their house. We were helpless pawns. Our dad went out drinking and came home angry most nights. We had learned to hide as much as we could and stay out of the way. He worked for uncle Bob. There were 2 brothers that spit on me and Cindy or pushed us waiting on the bus in Oklahoma. We had never rode a bus and thought it would be fun. It wasn’t. One day one of them went after our baby brother, Jerry. It would never happen again. Cindy and I beat the daylight out of the two trailer park thugs that had terrorized everyone else forced to ride the bus. We were learning that fighting back was the only option we had.

Melissa went to school with us and rode the bus. One day in 7th grade she came to our trailer. We weren’t ever allowed to have friends in our home or go to other peoples homes either. She wanted a match but our father measured and marked everything and would beat the daylights out of us if he found we had consumed or used anything without asking. We couldn’t give her a pack of matches out of fear. She left and within minutes shot herself beside her trailer. I’ve always blamed myself for not giving her those matches. We never knew why she did it. I ran to her trailer and saw the carnage ahead of Cindy. We both stopped Jerry to keep him from it. The entire school was given the day off. It was the first funeral of someone we had ever attended. If not for Cindy and Jerry I might’ve been Melissa. I might’ve chosen an easy way out of our hellish lives but I had Cindy and Jerry to think about I had siblings to protect the same way Tammy had protected us before grandma Tinney adopted her at 10. Without realizing it back then I became the fixer. The protector. The kid who whatever happened lied and said “I did it” or “it was my fault” to spare my siblings a beating. I also hated my father. This rate would grow over the years to come only more fierce and consuming throughout the rest of my life. But I never considered following Melissa’s lead I had Cindy and Jerry to think about leaving alone and defenseless.

Grandma and grandpa showed up in Oklahoma to move us to Texas. We had been quite nearly starved after a summer of no school and no food. Nothing had changed after a year away from grandpa he immediately cornered Cindy and I loading our meager belongings and said “did you miss me?” We were miserable malnutritioned and helpless. No one would help us. No one would ever help us. Only surviving and escaping our family we would but we were still to young to pull it off.

Cindy and I stopped asking about Tammy in Oklahoma. We had suffered many beatings by asking or even mentioning her name. It was while being moved from OK to TX I decided to one day find my sister and our mother to confront her. This would take years to accomplish but I was hellbent to do it.

Texas was equally miserable. Back in school at Castleberry I was beaten up on our first day. I only had one pair of pants as did Cindy. We both cut up a flag to add length by whipstitching the flag onto the hem of our pants. Debbie cornered me in the bathroom. Cindy was by far more adept to these encounters than I was so I did the same thing I did at home. Nothing. I had taken many beatings over Vickie back in Lompoc. I didn’t want another beating when I got home from defending myself. Debbie and her sidekicks regularly cornered me coming out of Special Ed. It was miserable I knew I would get beaten up everyday and dreaded it. One day my father noticed a black eye and told me “if you keep coming home getting your ass whipped at school I’m gonna whip it again.” The next day I beat the living shit out of Debbie with my books. She never bothered me again. Survival was difficult and arduous. It was hell. Monthly I was beaten for having a period and “posing a financial hardship on our family.” Cindy wouldn’t start until years after me. I’m guessing I had precocious puberty but it was never diagnosed. We never went to a regular doctor or dentist. We were too poor for medical care. Maryssa was diagnosed with precocious puberty at 5 years old.

Cindy and I ran away from home at 15. We had called 911. My dad was beating me because I was pregnant. No one in our family wanted me to have that baby. No one. We couldn’t take Jerry with us. We had nowhere to run and no one to run to. The next years of our lives would be survival and without the “family” who had never cared about us or protected us. My greatest regret is and will always be having to leave Jerry behind. In that Hellish House.

It was imperative for Cindy and I to become the mothers we never had. The people we never met. We made a pact at 16 living in a shelter together. We’ve kept that pact. We must now protect Maryssa who trusts a boyfriend who has taken out a policy on her life. She’s quite literally worth more dead to him than alive. Monday we call the insurance company…

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IGNORANCE Is Not An ADEQUATE Defense Of Law..

Good morning- This week has been incredibly stressful, hectic and unpredictable regarding family issues for the Texas Twins and we appreciate your patience.

Over the weekend, I’ve had several emails regarding Prison Weddings in CA, NY, Georgia and other service area states that make “bouncing back” to Texas is a 24 hour turnaround impossible, I’m terribly sorry but in March 2020, all service area states outside of Texas had been caught up and addressed.

Last March we had many clients who were either already scheduled in Texas or close to the scheduling process that were cancelled. THESE clients are a priority BECAUSE they have been waiting for 2 and in rare cases even 3 years. Marriage licenses expired. The Units returned paperwork to other clients in the planning process stages. EVERYONE in Texas was forced to START OVER which is WHY other states are on waiting lists.

For several months now I’ve been splitting the cost to replace licenses WITH booked clients. If you ARE NOT a booked client, please stop asking and/or EXPECTING me to cover the cost to replace YOUR marriage license. My LOYALTY is to my CLIENTS.

Effectively, Texas had to start over again which is why our primary focus for the next several months will be in Texas in order to address the majority of clients we have located within this state.

We currently have a waiting list for CA. It may be January or February before we begin bouncing in order to address the many clients in Texas. Some of whom have been waiting 2-3 years.

NY it’s in the air as to when we will be back as we can cover CA in 3-5 days by stacking Units.

Currently our main and primary focus is TX and surrounding states on weekends for Federal or County as many TDCJ Units are doing date changes. Robertson is now scheduling on the last Monday and Friday of the month. These two days were previously used to fly to other states for a quick turnaround. They are now no longer available or open due to being used for TDCJ.

Weekends are booked up to 2 years and in rare instances, up to 5 and even 10 years if a previous client books their Vow Renewal in advance. What does this mean? Please contact us ASAP if you are planning your Vow Renewal to ensure our availability.

We already have Texas Twins Events, Pawning Planners, Federal Units and previous clients on our weekend schedules as well as County and occasionally ICE. We are traveling every weekend and have been for many years EVERY weekend year round.

Since I’ve been asked “which TDCJ Unit scheduled first?” I was at Jester 3 with Kim then Allred then Jordan then McConnell in the past 10 or so days. These clients restarted their paperwork immediately when visitations reopened and were therefore ready by the time the May 17th announcement was made. You know when “other officiants” were telling you that weddings WOULD NOT be reopening lol. Idiots. Gossip my arse. Dang the stupidity is hilarious with these “other officiants.” You know the ones who haven’t performed ONE wedding in a TDCJ facility YET other than ME. You “other officiants” continue to make clowns OUT of yourselves. It’s not a “good look” either. Shut up AND get your facts straight.

BOP- Many of the guidelines have been lifted. Although ceremonies are contact and don’t require us to test or wear a mask, there is still a current ban on guests. Please be aware that at this time I have no idea when this guest ban will be lifted.

Rumor Mill Gossip- regarding Contact Visits in Texas, Oklahoma and a number of other State Facilities, FALSE. It’s highly probable that it will be 2022 until Contact is reinstated in many states.

RE: TDCJ Units that are saying “we aren’t doing weddings.” Contact me. Beto and Polunsky both tried to pull this no weddings shenanigans. I will have Access To Courts contact the Unit.

RE: You held your contract or weren’t sent one because you didn’t ask or weren’t at one of the original 24 Units that were cancelled in March 2020, neither I nor my staff can be EVERYWHERE.

If YOU are calling ME “about a date” and I have no idea who YOU are, I can assure you that you are NOT a client. I don’t make dates on my calendars for non clients under ANY circumstances. I won’t even consider the possibility.

We have over 3,000 clients across the US on waiting lists in other states. Get in line and follow our booking procedures. I do not and will not “line jump anyone onto our books” SIMPLY because a Unit calls or “someone I talked to a year ago” WRONGLY assumed that I would just hop on a plane OR drive like a maniac across the country to perform a service that THEY didn’t pay for.

My TIME is precious, valuable and RESERVED for CLIENTS who have followed our booking procedures fully and wholly. If you “held” your contract that’s on you. Not me. My office mails out contracts Monday, Wednesday and Friday. My scheduling and my businesses don’t have SURPRISES.

I don’t like “surprise phone calls” from people “assuming that their failure to book properly and follow the simple and straightforward task of SIGNING and RETURNING your contract” SOMEHOW is MY PROBLEM. It isn’t.

You were mailed a contract. Our contracts are clear and concise. Return with your deposit. If you failed to do either, you ARE NOT A CLIENT. There is nothing in my contracts stating “return at YOUR convenience” or “don’t bother to return at all.”

Regarding journalists, media and other “entertainment” people calling me at YOUR convenience…listen you aren’t a priority. I don’t give a shit who you are OR who you are with. If I tell you I’m with a client and INSTRUCT you to call back in 2 HOURS and you ARE calling me back every 5 minutes while I’m on location WITH MY CLIENTS I’m going to block you. I’m also going to delete your emails and STOP further contact altogether. Don’t kid yourself Pal, you aren’t important to me OR my clients.

I CANNOT stress this enough- MY CLIENTS and my family ARE MY PRIORITY. No I’m not under contract and no I’m not signing yours. Go tie someone else down with rope you expect them to pay for and STOP assuming that MEDIA is important to me, my staff and/or especially my clients. By the way genius, when you send someone a contract you MIGHT want to sign it. Get outta here.

You people in the “entertainment industry” are a fly in my soup. Buzz off. Don’t call me at YOUR convenience then IGNORE the fact that I just told you I WAS WITH A CLIENT and I’m not available and think you are more important than the client I’m with. You ARE NOT a priority! My CLIENTS ARE MY PRIORITY. When I SAY something I can ASSURE you that I MEAN it.

I do not and will not commit myself to anyone whether it’s a client or a network WITHOUT A CONTRACT.

If ANYONE who is NOT a client thought OR assumed that “calling me with a date” WOULD create a sense of urgency for ME, these folks were wildly misinformed. I don’t have emergencies. My time AND my schedule are prioritized in such a way and so far in advance that I’m often working 7 days a week MOST of the time and AT several Units or venues on the SAME DAY.

Meaning, if I barely have time to go to the bathroom I certainly don’t have time to explain to you why you aren’t a client AND zero tolerance for arguing with someone (anyone) who is NOT a BOOKED client to explain WHY I won’t drop everything on my full AND burdened schedule in ORDER to accommodate them because “they talked to, emailed or DM’d me.”

New flash- YOU DID NOT BOTHER TO BOOK SERVICES. YOU DID NOT FOLLOW BOOKING PROCEDURES. YOU ARE NOT A CLIENT. I DO NOT COMMIT MYSELF OR MY STAFF TO ANYONE WHO IS NOT A CLIENT.

Stop calling me “about a date” when I have no idea who you are. Do you have any idea how many people contact me in A DAY? Do you have any idea how stressful and repetitive it is to continue repeating myself? Listen, I’m busy. I juggle my family, my clients, four businesses and I’m intolerant of people who ARE NOT CLIENTS attempting to argue that they are.

ESPECIALLY people who cannot follow simple instructions. If my office went to the time, trouble and expense to mail you a contract that you didn’t bother to return, that’s on YOU. Mailing you a contract didn’t create or constitute a client relationship. Anyone assuming it would is wholly and entirely inaccurate.

Now…moving forward here, IF you hired OR paid “someone else” AND you are contacting me because 1. They won’t respond or 2. Their phone was disconnected or 3. They didn’t show up or 4. You believed what they were telling you was true 5. They are too busy to respond to you (what the Hell? This is the stupidest shit I have ever heard). If your clients ARE NOT your priority you idiots then WHO or WHAT in the Sam Hill Hell IS? or 6. You paid someone money for a service that they FAILED to provide to you AND you didn’t demand a contract AND a receipt, you SHOULD have DEMANDED BOTH.

For years now I’ve been getting these types of calls AND my BOOKED CLIENTS are my priority. I CANNOT make this clearer to anyone. GET A CONTRACT! Stop sending money to ANYONE because they “won’t tell you what to do.” Christ, I tell ALL of my clients what to do in ALL of OUR SERVICE AREA STATES and Countries educate them step by step. If you hired “someone else” and they ARE NOT responding or walking you through the process, get your money back and then call me.

For the idiot “other officiants” pick pocketing everyone you can get your hands on OUT there and ESPECIALLY for those of you in New York, California, Texas and Missouri, you people are the biggest bunch of con artist snake oil salesmen in the world. I’m going to educate every consumer out there AND stop the money train you are riding on by victimizing ANYONE planning to marry an inmate by stealing from them. How do you sleep at night? Listen up crooks- I’m going to continually expose you on this page for exactly what you are heartless thugs and thieves.

California, if you HAVE lost your ability to sign a marriage license because you are completely, totally and wholly inept and idiotic and effectively screwed up someone’s marriage license, I’ve instructed EVERYONE contacting me to report you. By the way, if you LOST your ability to conduct a ceremony because even the state of California recognized what a colossal screw up you are AND you continued to accept money for services you couldn’t provide, I’m ALSO going to advise your victims on exactly how to sue your ass too. STOP victimizing people.

As for the other blood sucking “officiants” who used the desperation of ANYONE wanting to marry an inmate to their OWN advantage during this lockdown solely to financially benefit themselves and EFFECTIVELY victimized single income households, I’m reporting and will CONTINUE to report EACH and EVERY one of you to authorities that I come across ON my own OR hear about. Maybe while you are sitting in prison for your fraudulent crimes against the people you stole from by telling them what they wanted to hear all the while KNOWING that they had no idea that what they were paying YOU for was a felony that involved THEM… I hope you FINALLY realize and recognize that karma REALLY is a bitch. I’m coming after you “other officiants.” You thieves are the most deceptive and manipulative swindlers there are. Destroying and ruining someone’s life event and putting them in jeaopardy of a felonious offense? I’m going to take each and every one of you down AND this IS a promise NOT a threat. I’m pretty busy BUT I can ASSURE you that I will MAKE the time it takes to STOP you “other officiants” from stealing AND victimizing INNOCENT people wishing to marry an inmate.

For years there have been so many people that just wanted to get married in a prison literally shook down by swindling “other officiants” OUT there that it TRULY breaks my heart BUT I cannot be everywhere.

What I can do is tell you how to fight back and get your money from these sorry bastards AND I will. What I can do is report each and every one of these “other officiants” for THE felonious offenses they’ve committed pertaining to marriage fraud AND tampering with a government document. You dumb shits HAD better start “shopping” for a criminal attorney because YOU are going to NEED one.

I’m still traveling and will return to TX Monday. I will answer when I can and hope everyone traveling to visits has a safe trip. Happy Fathers Day to all of the mothers pulling double duty as both parents and/or grandparents or others taking on the role and responsibility of raising children alone. I know it’s not easy. Cindy and I were both mothers and fathers to our adult children so we know and understand how difficult it can be. Regarding pamper packages sent out to those struggling in their relationships and feeling isolated or alone, your packages were mailed out via priority yesterday in Texas. Hugs, love and hope to see all of you very soon.

I want to address two fairly alarming things that “other officiants” have been instructing you to do that can get you into criminal legal issues that you aren’t or WERE made aware of that these “other officiants” certainly should have been aware of to begin with.

Pay attention. Why? Ignorance isn’t an adequate defense of the law that’s why. Read your marriage license application. Do you REMEMBER raising your right hand to swear that all of the information that YOU provided on that marriage application was TRUE and CORRECT?

Do you recall the question on the Absentee Affidavit which BY the way also has a warning for providing false information that ASKS if the Absent Party WILL BE PRESENT for the ceremony?

There’s a REASON. Proxy marriage was banned in Texas in 2013. Only Active Duty Military Members QUALIFY for Proxy Marriage in Texas.

UNLESS the couple AND the officiant ARE all present and in the same place, the absentee affidavit was also falsely and inappropriately filed IN conjunction with YOUR marriage license application. Think about it. The clerks office would NEVER have issued a marriage license to ANYONE with an Absentee Affidavit stating the reason the other party was absent was BECAUSE the absent party WAS INCARCERATED and WOULD NOT BE PRESENT for the ceremony!

Several people have recently contacted me and stated that they either “thought” or that they were ALREADY “legally married.” These same people WERE upset that TDCJ wouldn’t accept their “marriage.” They SHOULD have been upset BUT were unaware that they were accomplices to a felonious offense.

This post is specifically addressing Texas licenses and “fraudulent marriages. So please do NOT confuse this post to Alabama and the other issues attributed to the TDCJ Alabama fiasco.

There are “other officiants” out there who will do anything to get into your pockets including lying, misleading you and in certain circumstances EVEN making numerous innocent people victims by becoming accomplices to crimes they were unaware of.

Being UNAWARE of marriage laws, tampering with a government document or even marriage fraud is NOT and will NOT prevent you from prosecution. Again, ignorance is not an adequate defense of the law.

If ANY officiant is “telling you” that THEY “can JUST sign your license” and you will be “legally married,” that are knowingly, intentionally and with forethought committing fraud. They are also tampering with a government document. A document that YOUR name is on hence the accomplice reference.

TDCJ has had a policy in place since 2015 that REQUIRES the couple AND the officiant in person and on site at the Unit. Do you know why? Because a Formal Marriage License REQUIRES all parties present whether the ceremony is contact or non contact, a ceremony with all parties present must occur. NOT by phone where 3 way calls are strictly prohibited. NOT by video where 3 way video calls are prohibited BUT in person and on site AT a TDCJ Detention Unit.

Anyone “telling you” that they can marry you by “going over, under OR around” the laws, procedure and/or policy is lying to you or THEY are too stupid to realize or recognize that what they are doing is a felony and prosecutable offense.

Regarding the Alabama marriage certificate scenario- this woman is telling people that “they can just get another license in Texas OR another state.” Again, this is NOT legal.

When you fill out a marriage application, READ it. There are warnings on it for valid reasons. READ that marriage application.

A marriage license IS A GOVERNMENT DOCUMENT. Tampering with a government document is a FELONY. Marriage Fraud IS also a FELONY.

Fraud whether it’s marriage fraud or tampering with a government document is still FRAUD. Ignorance isn’t going to protect you from prosecution.

If you have questions regarding something you were told or heard that sound too good to be true, call me, text me, DM or email me but don’t step in a bear trap because you “thought” what you were being told was accurate. It wasn’t. The person you paid to “JUST sign that license” is either a raging idiot or con artist. I don’t care which BUT know that THIS person whether deliberately or due to gross ignorance or incompetence has involved NOT only YOU but also whoever else was listed on that marriage license as accomplices.

https://casetext.com/statute/texas-codes/penal-code/title-8-offenses-against-public-administration/chapter-37-perjury-and-other-falsification/section-3710-tampering-with-governmental-record

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“Stop Setting Yourself On Fire To Keep Others Warm.” Penny Reid

This past week has been emotionally exhausting. Thursday at Harris Hospital, Virginia didn’t even recognize me. I was crushed. Shocked. Heartbroken.

After nearly 37 years since we first met when I was a contract employee at CSC working in Security, Virginia was the mother figure I had never had. Saying goodbye to her will also be the hardest experience of loss I’ve endured in this lifetime.

TDCJ Scheduled and Confirmed dates so far are June 8- Jester 3. June 9- Allred Unit. June 15- Jordan Unit. July 20- Robertson Unit.

Federal Clients- Please be aware that pre Covid guidelines have been lifted. Contact weddings are in place. Wedding rings valued at less than $100 are allowed. Currently, no guests are allowed.

ICE- No guests are allowed. Covid guidelines are still in place.

County- Tarrant County is still not allowing mobile notaries unless accompanied by an attorney. Parker County will not notarized absentee affidavits for inmates in federal custody.

All other counties- there are no further issues I’m aware of. If you encounter issues, contact me.

With Virginia dying and while trying to clean out the condo I bought and furnished, as usual, my niece, Stephaney yet again chose the worst POSSIBLE time SHE COULD to CHOOSE to relapse.

Addicts don’t care. I know you’re reading this Stephaney and probably too high to understand it BUT goodbye. You made your choice.

For the first time in 17 years I thought and believed I had YOU finally stable. The moment I used the money YOU had given me every few days to keep you from blowing it on drugs in order for you to save up to buy a car for 6 months, YOU went straight to your dealer and were off the rails on meth YET again.

Don’t call me Steph. I have nothing and I mean nothing to say to you. I will not help you again other than to buy a bus ticket to CA. Go be homeless in Venice Beach.

I’ve devoted 17 years and hundreds of thousands of dollars for YOUR treatment, bonds and more for you to trying to save you WHILE also financially helping Cindy raise the twins with NO child support whatsoever from you or that idiot, Michael Wayne Scherer Jr and I’m officially DONE. Your MOM is done too. Leave us alone.

Addicts are sociopaths. They are completely devoid of empathy and compassion for family members that their behavior victimizes. If you disagree with this statement, you either don’t have a family member with addiction issues who HAS destroyed any degree of normality in YOUR life OR you are an addict yourself. I hate drugs. I especially cannot tolerate addicts.

For over a year now, my niece, YOU Stephaney have been living at group home. The rent is $650 a month. It’s about 7-9 minutes from my West Fort Worth home. The group home isn’t in the luxurious neighborhood I live in. You “hate living with 8-10 other women. You want your own apartment. You wanted a car. You. You. You.”

They don’t have group home’s in Westover Hills. Group homes aren’t in $600-900k neighborhoods.

You didn’t like the location of the Group Home. Too bad. You had nowhere else to go. I would think after being homeless, in jail or in a psych ward 17 times during a two year window while trying to find you a job that you would appreciate having a place to live that someone else (your mother and I) were paying for. But nope not you. You never appreciate anything. You wouldn’t know TRUE sacrifice if it slapped you in the face. Sociopaths have no idea what sacrifice is.

I paid YOUR rent for months. I looked everywhere to find you a job. I drove you to AND from Jason’s until you started acting crazy and got fired again from using. Yes I called Angela at the Group Home to have you committed and dried out again. Not Cindy. Me. I did this to keep you from getting kicked out and dry you out. You are a stark raving lunatic on meth. Ask anyone. Ask coworkers at Jason’s or the other great job I got FOR you at Lucilles you screwed up. You think no one knows when you are using. EVERYONE KNOWS.

Then I find you a job at Charlestons where you were making more money than you did at Jason’s. Enough to pay a few months of your own rent for the FIRST time in your 34 year life.

Your mother and I were paying our own rent at 16 years old. Not in a beautiful neighborhood either. In a very dangerous area because we couldn’t afford a nice apartment in a nice area. Do you know what? We were thankful to have running water and a roof over our heads back then you EVEN though WE COULD not afford electricity for the THREE YEARS we lived there you ungrateful jackass.

You’re welcome you never appreciate anything. You never have and you never will. You care about getting high more than anything else in your life. You could have been married. You could have had a normal life. You could have SPARED this entire family from your destructive choices and yet over and over you have hurt us. We are sick and tired of your sociopathic tendencies, name calling and never accepting responsibility for your own actions.

I’ve drove you to work or let you use my Uber App when you got that job at Charlestons since you suddenly considered yourself “too good” to ride the bus. I worked so damn hard to get you at that upscale restaurant.

You have been fired from nearly every other restaurant in Fort Worth AND Weatherford for acting crazy on meth. You did that. We didn’t. We have screamed, cried and begged you to stay clean. You have consistently chosen not to do so.

A year and half ago BEFORE your two years back on the streets homeless and whacked out, you DELIBERATELY lied and said you were never using again. Cindy and I had as usual just picked you up from yet another psych ward “stint” because your behavior on meth leads police to believe you are crazy rather than high and experiencing meth induced psychosis.

You lied all the way to that apartment and then snuck off through the apartment complex after YOU lied to Cindy and I telling us YOU needed rent money to and that you were planned and were going to apply at Mexican Inn the following day and THEN you ran off with the rent money we GAVE to you in good faith choosing to be a homeless drug addict.

I cannot believe what you put us through over and over and over. My health has suffered. Cindys health has suffered and not one but both your twin daughters have attempted suicide BECAUSE OF YOU.

Not that you would care but since Cindy gave up on you during that 2 year window of you running off with the so called “rent money” we gave to you, Cindy wasn’t looking for you I was.

Cindy even told our dear friend, Sherri that “she was lucky her meth addicted son died sparing her ALL of the shit that we have been through trying to save you and MEANT IT.”

Sherri was shocked but Sherri hasn’t been through 17 years of this crap. She only had one year of it.

Your mother told me not to look for you but I refused to give up. I spent those 2 years searching for YOU when I wasn’t working in very dangerous areas.

Your mom spent those two years crying and heartbroken not knowing if you were dead or alive WHILE trying to act normal and raise your kids you selfish fuck.

When I did find YOU, you were out of YOUR mind AND living in a cardboard box. The police had called me because I gave up trying to find you myself and finally filed a missing persons report.

Fort Worth PD actually told me “not to try and come get you because you were out of your mind on meth.” YET Fort Worth PD also refused to take you to the JPS psych ward because they knew you were NOT out of your mind AND/OR mentally ill but instead high on meth. They left your ass in that box. I should have listenned to them and soared subjecting myself AND your daughter finding you that day. I wish I had.

You may have forgotten that night while living in a cardboard box that I had your daughter, Maryssa in my suv seeing you like that. Screaming and crawling out of that box COMPLETELY out of your mind. You wouldn’t go to treatment. We BOTH begged you. Even the police wouldn’t transfer you to the psych ward.

Have you ever wondered why Maryssa was with me? She was with me because she TRULY believed that if I found you that if she was with me that SHE could convince you to go into treatment. You screamed at your own daughter that you were Jesus Christ and she was Satan.

Do you THINK any of us have forgotten the things you’ve done and said to hurt us? News flash- we haven’t. We can’t. We never will.

I went back to that GD box every day I wasn’t traveling to meet clients to look for you and drop off food and clothing for a solid month. You never went back after you were found there. A month later, rather than you living in that bud and benefitting from everything I had left there thinking it was for you crying and humiliated, a man crawled out of that box instead.

Go be homeless somewhere, anywhere. I don’t want to find you shadow boxing light poles and acting stupid on Camp Bowie. The twins are terrified that you will show up in Weatherford and embarrass them at Cindy’s. Don’t. Cindy WILL call the police.

I spent 2 years when not working paying homeless people I showed your photo’s to trying to find you. TWO YEARS.

I wish I had left you in Oklahoma and let you do the 10-20. I wish I had. Getting you probation was the stupidest thing I have ever done. Those 3 years were the only time in your adult life you were “normal.” Your children wouldn’t care what a maniac you are on drugs if they had NOT seen you off meth for those 3 years you were on paper and follicles. Go to prison. I wish you had failed those Damn hair follicles to spare all of us getting back on meth LESS than 24 hours after your probation removed hair follicles.

Meanwhile Cindy was struggling with high blood pressure and hypertension because of YOU. Cindy nearly died because I was trying to get you back in treatment when you got off that bus in Oklahoma we put you on to get you to treatment so we could go to work and then you called us to drive 6 hours one way to take you to rehab ourselves. You selfish POS. You NEVER once considered what you have put us through. Not ONE TIME.

We hate your screaming phone calls. We now record them. Why? Because we are going to call the police and stop you from terrorizing us with them and film from our house cameras to prove you are a threat to yourself and others.

My neighbors thought I was crazy or a fanatic for installing those 16 cameras “in this neighborhood.” I knew I would need them with an out of control meth addict coming over here with a hammer. Were you planning to kill your #1 enabler. You know, ME?

The Fort Worth house is a compound of self defense. Don’t bring a hammer to a gun fight MF. You know damn well I know how to protect myself and my home AND I will.

Do you have any idea what seeing your OWN mother whacked out of their minds does to children? Tammy, Cindy and I do. Jerry was too young.

Maryssa will never forget seeing you crawling out of that box like a lunatic clawing at us like a monster.

We have tried to protect the twins from YOU. The very same children Cindy and I did everything humanly possible to give THEM the stable childhood WE didn’t have that you kept screwing up over and over and over with your outrageous and dangerous behavior.

No you don’t care and I doubt you EVER will care either. The only thing you care about is your next fix. You are the most selfish SOB I’ve ever encountered in my entire life OTHER than MY OWN MOTHER.

During that two years of you being homeless and strung out where Cindys heart was literally breaking in Parker County, I found you once again while trying to find you (as usual) in my “off time.” Do you know what it’s like trying to find a maniac on meth to convince them to get help? I DO.

That day I saw you walking down Calmont waiving your hands around and talking to yourself would be the last time I wasted my time looking for you.

While I was wasting my time looking for you, crying my eyes from weariness and frustration along with my determination to fix you, AGAIN I begged you to go into treatment. BEGGED. You screamed at me and called me names and told me you hated me. I hate you. I hate everything you’ve taken from me, my sister and this family. Cindy was right. Sherri was lucky.

If my other readers don’t know OR can’t understand what it’s like trying to save an addict WHILE raising their twin daughters for nearly 17 years, SPARE me your judgment about my language OR my transparency.

For everyone else who has lived through the nightmare of loving and trying to save an addict, I’m sure you can relate.

Someone I loved is NOW dying. The closest thing to a mother figure I have ever known doesn’t even recognize me. At the very same time- someone ELSE that I HAVE tried to save over and over, YOU Stephaney have YET AGAIN betrayed my trust for the last time. I will never “help” you by enabling you AGAIN Stephaney.

Stephaney, I wish you were in prison. I wish I hadn’t saved you from prison in Oklahoma. I wish when I was trying to send you to what I thought was a treatment center in Georgia that when you were arrested on a revoked bond in Oklahoma at the Dallas Greyhound bus station where I was relieved we were going to get you out of Texas that you decided to get into a fist fight at after we left that the Dallas PD had taken you back to Oklahoma.

I wish I hadn’t paid that damn bond because I was so determined to get a year of treatment in another state and a year of your crap away from this family. You destroy everything. EVERYTHING.

I finally got you on that bus out of Texas and a week later YOU were back here terrorizing us AGAIN. ONE WEEK? All that money spent?

The amount of money I’ve “spent” trying to save YOU is staggering at nearly half a million dollars over these last 17 years but the financial pain coupled with the emotional abuse and many other things that YOU have done to this family are equally emotionally debilitating.

I can’t go through this again with YOU and I won’t.

Stephaney you gave your mother high blood pressure and heart attacks. I nearly lost my twin. The only time in 17 years that you have ever been clean was when you were on paper from Oklahoma that REQUIRED hair follicle testing. The minute they removed hair follicles you were right back on meth and right back to abusing, harassing and stalking us AND the twins.

Stephaney-have literally abused this entire family for 17 years. Go away. I don’t care where.

Your daughters have both attempted suicide OVER YOUR CHOICE to start using. Makenna will permanently suffer with heart damage and Serotonin Syndrome BECAUSE YOU CHOSE METH after those damn hair follicles were removed from the conditions of your probation.

That 3 years of sobriety earned the twins trust only for you to destroy it and leave those two innocent children blaming themselves and attempting suicide you piece of shit! I hate you.

How DARE you lead us and your own children to believe YOU would never get back on meth by lying to all of us that you would never use again during that three year window of probation that required hair follicles? Fuck you.

Last Friday after months of saving your money for you from that good paying job at Charleston,s that I found FOR you WHILE juggling my 4 businesses and client’s. You wouldn’t EVEN bother to find a job on your own. I had to do it for you.

THEN after months of paying all of your expenses for you after yet another expensive “stint” in treatment, you got into that $5k car and took off.

You didn’t even bother to let me take you or follow to go find insurance. You were too hellbent on finding meth again you psychotic bitch.

No thank you for the many months and nearly a year of helping to pay your rent, give you rides to work, find you a job not once but three times in 3 years because you started using at the other job and got fired again. No thank you for the cigarettes, meals, treatment facilities or YOUR coffee WHILE driving you to and from work everyday when I wasn’t out of town or the state working my events while you yelled “I’m not riding the bus anymore give me access to Uber.” You are the most entitled and demanding little shit that I’ve ever encountered.

Do you HAVE ANY idea how hard it is to walk into a prison or venue acting normal AND happy for MY clients with your mom and daughters crying because you are yet again terrorizing this family?

Do you know I worry every time I travel that you will show up at our houses or our friends houses OR how embarrassing our neighbors seeing you acting crazy is to US or your children?!!!! How expensive it is to fix kicked in doors? Holes punched in our walls? Covering deductibles because you’ve stolen our cars, credit cards and checks WHILE raising your twin daughters and paying medical expenses over and over again at Mesa Springs for the twins because of your behavior? What about the treatments I’ve paid over and over and over for your sorry ass?

Stephaney, you are the most selfish son of a bitch I’ve ever encountered other than my own mother who was also a piece of shit.

The difference between you and OUR MOTHER is that YOU never had THE opportunity to SELL your children to YOUR dealer for $50 each like OUR MOTHER did to her FOUR CHILDREN. Do you know why YOU NEVER had the opportunity? Because I paid an attorney $20k to get custody of them and protect them from YOU your addiction.

We SAVED the twins from YOU. Stop saying we STOLE the TWINS from you. Idiot. You couldn’t take care of those kids for ten minutes.

Do you have any idea how much raising twins costs? Braces? Staying in expensive mental institutions because they’ve seen you acting crazy and screaming she is Jesus Christ? Again, fuck you.

Our FB friends message Cindy and I constantly when YOU are off her meds and back on meth. “I saw Stephaney shadow boxing a light pole near El Fenix in Camp Bowie.” We BOTH tell them all to “call the police.”

Do you know how much money Cindy and I have spent buying “psyche ward friendly” clothing FOR YOU over and over and over. JPS would release you. You would start using again and get institutionalized again. We would buy more psych ward friendly clothing. Wear what they have we aren’t bringing you ANYTHING ever again in the nut house. We aren’t EVER coming to visit again and we aren’t ever helping you again. Help yourself MF.

I’m surprised as hell that I haven’t had a nervous breakdown or heart attack myself! Stephaney- 17 times at the nut house in a 3 year window AND consistently losing all of the shit we bought for YOU over and over?! You are outrageous. OUTRAGEOUS.

Guess what you selfish narcissist, WHILE we were running and buying psych ward friendly clothing and cigarettes “because you could smoke at Sundance,” we were ALSO running to Mesa Springs where the twins were being treated for suicidal ideation because of YOU. Then we had to drive on to Wellbridge where dad was because he shot up his roof thinking someone was living in the attic.

You have NO IDEA the shit we have been through because of you AND dad. To Hell with both of you. Burn in Hell.

FOUR of our own family members in NUT HOUSES at the same time? TWO of you THAT we didn’t give a shit about were BOTH YOU and our DAD.

Yet Cindy and I were running to AND from our work and nut houses for a month while you and dad were committed at the same time as the twins.

Thanks for destroying nearly 20 years of our lives we can never get back. You life ruining bastard. You have no idea of the glass you have drug US and your children through.

Cindy’s neighbors don’t even talk to her BECAUSE your dumb ass antics that have forced us to call the police over and over and over again have embarrassed the entire family over there.

Walking back and forth across Cindy’s roof screaming you were Jesus as we rolled into the driveway with Makenna hanging her head in shame and running into the house after hours of STAAR testing to keep from seeing you YET AGAIN out of your mind on Meth terrorizing Cindy, the twins, Leigh Ann and baby Maddy? Your sister can never forgive you for the things you have said, done and taken from her. Neither can my son. Don’t call Leigh Ann or Robert. They are done too. Unlike you they have families and a normal life. Leave them alone.

Cindy and I survived the shittiest childhood ever. That’s right I said said survived. As you are well aware, our mother was the most miserable excuse for a human being I’ve ever encountered UNTIL YOU. Don’t give me your guilt trip B.S. ever again about how hard your life was because drug dealers beat you up.

Hey Steph- STOP bring stupid and blaming others BECAUSE you put yourself in those situations not us.

I never thought I could hate anyone as much as I hate our mom. But you changed that. After selling all 4 of her children for $50 each to her Heroin dealer who (not knowing what to do with us), locked us in a closet together for 7-12 days starving and urinating and crying in the dark. There was a latch on the outside of that door making it impossible for us to leave on our own. No one was looking for us. The smells alerted other neighbors to what they believed was a dead body which turned out to be 10 year old Tammy our step sister, 6 year old twins (Cindy and I) and two year old Jerry our baby brother. Cindy had cried so hard and so long out of fear and hunger that she required an emergency hernia surgery. We survived. We never used drugs because we hated drugs. You and your stupid choices have forced us to endure a childhood AND an adulthood of dealing with a piece of shit addict. I can’t wait for our mother to die so I can stop using the energy it takes to hate her for her choices.

You HAVE rarely heard me talk about “the rest of my family” because I don’t have anything good and much less positive to say. Our father didn’t want three children while grandma Tinney adopted and saved Tammy.

Our father wanted to drink and party so he left us with his father who once Tammy was safely out of the picture, began sexually abusing my twin sister and I just as he had Tammy. No one protected us from grandpa. No one. Not dad, not grandma not aunt Shirley. No one would save us. We RAN to save ourselves.

When Cindy and I ran away at 15, baby brother Jerry was left behind. Poor Jerry alone with a wicked stepmother and a violent father. Every time I hear “oh what a lonely boy” I think of our baby brother and I cry.

You wanna know where Cindy and I came from? We ran from the gates of Hell that you and your behavior drug us right back into.

The police found Cindy and I eating out of a trash can behind 7-11 at 15 years old and took us to the shelter. We were thankful to be off the streets but nothing you. You love being homeless you idiot.

I was pregnant after being raped and lost the baby shortly thereafter. We lived at Womens Haven for about a year before a church donated us a car.

We also lived in that car for another year taking births baths at area gas stations until we could save up to rent an apartment. Cindy and I both lied about our ages to get waitress jobs to keep from starving. Cindy was followed home one night while I was working late at Red Lobster. She worked at IHOP. These two men pushed her into the apartment and raped then assaulted her. I came home to find my bloody and battered twin sister on the living room floor beside the $10 sofa we had tied to the top of our donated car to bring home and have somewhere to sit. She never saw their faces. Stephaney you have no fucking idea where we have been, what we have been through OR what we have survived. You selfish idiot.

Your sister, Leigh Ann is the child of that rape. We didn’t even know Cindy was pregnant until a car hit us and she was told she was pregnant in the ER. This shocking development was a deal between us. I had lost a baby she had gained one. We would raise her together and forget how she got here. We would also “midnight move” from our dark apt in the middle of the night to an all bills paid apt about 3 miles away.

Never once did our father, grandmother or aunt offer to help us in any way. We had no one. Only each other. You have always had Cindy and I. You don’t anymore. You are dead to us.

You have stolen everything you could from this family. You had no excuses. You didn’t live our shitty childhood. You weren’t abused. You never went hungry. We raised all of you as a team. Even when you were screwing around and got pregnant, we weren’t upset. We would deal with it. We would financially handle it.

We didn’t ask you for anything other than to be a decent human being and get off drugs. PERIOD. That’s it. Their entire lifetime you have been a fucked up out of control lunatic on drugs. Cindy and I were all you had left. I refused to give up on you but NO MORE. Go away. Far away.

My first husband was violent as was your mothers. We didn’t even know or realize that violence wasn’t normal. We had grown up in very violent and abusive conditions. But once we did it was too late. Cindy was pregnant with YOU.

You (according to your Deadbeat dad, Larry Mahaney) were “supposed to be a boy.”

Your miserable excuse of a father never forgave Cindy for having a girl and within 2 years had another entire family.

Cindy was visiting me in San Clemente with you and Leigh Ann when a message on my home recorder from Larry stated “don’t bother coming home. There’s nothing left here. None of the girls clothes or toys, none of your personal items. Nothing. You should have had a boy.”

Leigh Ann was always a good baby. You never were. You were fussy and by 6 acting in a violent fashion towards your sister and my son. We couldn’t find out why until you were diagnosed as bipolar AND absolutely refused to take your medication.

Your sorry sack of shit father, Larry “skirted” child support by non servicing Cindy of the court date and claiming to have custody of YOU.

Your mother has raised NOT one but TWO generations of children with no child support whatsoever. I AM a workaholic BECAUSE I’m the only one other than her husband who had always taken care of Cindy, you, Leigh Ann and the twins financially and emotionally.

You DON’T KNOW hardship or sacrifice. You never have. Save that “sorry” shit for another sucker. Sorry is a word I would love to never hear again.

By 14 or 15, you were hanging with a rough crowd. By 15.5, she you were pregnant with twins. By 16 you were on meth “to control your weight.”

Had I not hired an attorney, the state would’ve taken the twins.

Cindy and I SAVED the twins at 40 years old. Stop saying we stole them you stupid ass. We saved them. We saved them from being drug into crack houses and sexually abused by your crackhead friends. You would have endangered them the same way our mother did to us.

For years Cindy and I have tried to save YOU and WE give up. You even stole Leigh Ann’s brand new computer, desk and chair that she saved up to buy for herself. You don’t care about anything except getting high.

YOU love meth more than the only two people who didn’t give up, me and your mom. Your “go to” enablers, Wendy and Cindy. Don’t come to us anymore. We are finished trying to save you. Save yourself.

Have a great life getting high or going to prison for your choices. I will NEVER bail you put again. I will never pay to get your towed car out of impound when you are arrested either and you will be you always are.

I can’t do this anymore. I won’t. Cindy had a heart attack when YOU relapsed and started using while we were in NY TWO DAYS to film with CBS.

You are just like our mother. The only difference is that Cindy and I protected the twins. No one protected us. We are the complete opposite of our mother and YOU. We gave you a good childhood. We have tried over and over to help you. The banks are closed.

We are the people we never had but you cannot cherry pick a withered branch from a cherry tree. We are out.

Good luck to you Steph. You will get pulled over. You will lose your car AGAIN just like you did 3 years ago after we spent thousands bonding it out because we aren’t going to bond your car OR you out.

Frankly, I wish you would go to prison. I wish I had let you go in Oklahoma an spared this family and especially your children from the things you’ve said and done.

It’s time for you to experience tough love Steph and this time WE REALLY mean it…

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The Less You Respond To Negativity, The More Peaceful Your Life Becomes..

For eight months now the stress of not being able to visit a TDCJ inmate continues. As of yet and regardless of the “chatter” AKA gossip, TDCJ is not releasing thousands of inmates due to the number of inmates transferring from county jails into state prisons.

There are so many rumors out there giving false hope to people who need hope the most that I’m writing this blog while in a truck stop parking lot to stop the rumor mill.

Last weeks conference call didn’t even touch on in person visitation. Instead the focus was on Covid cases. As of yet, we still have no official word on in person visitation in TDCJ facilities.

Meanwhile and since my other clients follow this site, Fort Worth FMC as well as other Federal Facilities has reinstated visitation with preregistration requirements. Please be aware of these requirements.

Lompoc clients, there is a large number of inmates with projected release dates. I will not be returning to Lompoc until February or March of 2021. Normally, I’m in California several times a year but due to client rescheduled event dates of Texas Twins Event’s and The Pawning Planners as well as Federal Clients, traveling to California at this time is improbable if not impossible.

2 of the three clients I was scheduled to marry this week have tested positive for Covid. Please be aware that this virus is still out there. My daughter in law, Stephanie was at a hospital in Tyler last weekend and apparently exposed to Covid while visiting her uncle who was on life support due to a self inflicted gunshot. The issues of this tragic event have caused great anxiety to my daughter in law as well as the possibility of being Covid positive after spending two days at the hospital. In fact, an argument regarding a GoFundMe account to raise money for a funeral rather than a cremation started an argument between my daughter in law and I at a birthday lunch this week. My daughter in law was arguing about what her uncle wanted. I was arguing about him wanting a $10-12k funeral because “he didn’t want to be cremated.” I advised my daughter in law that we are in a pandemic with Christmas right around the corner and people aren’t in a position to fund a full fledged funeral for someone who chose to shoot himself. I then reiterated that my daughter in laws focus needs to be on her son and her husband as well as her job and not at the demands of someone expecting their surviving family to fund an expensive funeral. I’m a realist.

Today while on messenger, “aunt Margie” my daughter in laws aunt had sent me a message and FB hid it since we weren’t connected. The message was somewhat cryptic and led me to suspect it was from one of my clients planning to marry an inmate so I responded. Apparently, Margies son is at Cole Unit in Bonham, Texas. She wanted me to send her the forms to request a Reprieve For Family Emergency. Please be aware that due to Covid, the odds of TDCJ granting a reprieve are slim. Why? Because releasing an inmate to attend a funeral can expose the inmate to Covid. I then sent her a parole packet and letters of support template. She asked me about the forms for a Hardship Transfer which I also sent. Hardship Transfers are tricky. Margie lives 90 minutes from Cole Unit.

While Bridgeport is closer, there is no guarantee that TDCJ will choose a Unit closer simply because it is closer. Further, Bridgeport while operating under TDCJ is one of the very few privately owned Units in Texas. Because of this fact, Bridgeport has different guidelines and does not require offer Unit Photos which is why you never see Unit Photos from Bridgeport unless they are from the parking lot and non authorized.

I then suggested a paupers funeral or donating the body to science since I was asked and was told “I’m not cremating my brother. That’s not what he wanted.”

Folks, I’m going to be blatantly honest about the fact that no one expects death. No one expects suicide. Texas provides paupers funerals for indigent deaths that occur in this state. Another option is cremation. Even if the deceased owns property, the expense of preparing a body along with the casket and other factors can easily run $5-7k.

In the “suicide situation” that presented itself upon my daughter in law the day she and my son were returning from the Colorado Wedding, I found it more than a little selfish that Robert was adamant about not wanting to be cremated. For reasons I don’t understand, trying to explain to my daughter in law that this wasn’t her problem resulted in an argument. My son however saw my point. I spent the rest of my day making food deliveries for our pantry recipients and wondering why on earth my daughter in law thought or expected that strangers would miraculously donate enough money to cover a costly funeral?

Texas has what’s called a Body Disposition Affidavit. If you aren’t married or the next of kin, the decision of what to do with your body can be required with a Body Disposition Affidavit. My father didn’t have one for Gretta. Because he didn’t, Gretta’s sister, Kathy contacted Greenwood and stopped my father from planning and paying for the funeral. For thirty days, Greenwood waited on Kathy to take over funeral planning. For thirty days, the bill to store Gretta grew. After 30 days her body had deteriorated to such an extent that it took me three hours to prepare her for an open casket ceremony. Gretta owned a plot at Greenwood. The cost to prepare, store and bury her was $12k.

Whatever your feelings are regarding death and expenses, if your survivors cannot afford to carry out your wishes, the options left to them are somewhat limited. After all, your family members have bills to pay and families to support.

Today my son called me to tell me about Stephanie and Covid. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to deduce that she was exposed going to visit this uncle who had shot himself. I saw photos on the GoFundMe Campaign of several relatives not wearing masks. In fact, yesterday I asked my son “why wasn’t anyone wearing a mask?” Whatever your feelings on masks are, being with a group of people is and can be an event that exposes you to this virus.

This evening while traveling back from a wedding elopement ceremony in Dallas, Cindy called me about one of our former clients, Debbie’s daughter, Hannah calling her about moving in. Hannah is pregnant, 21 and living at home with her mother. Things aren’t going well but moving in with Cindy isn’t the solution to this problem. Cindy is raising her twin granddaughters. For years when her adult daughters, Leigh Ann and Stephaney were in school, their friends would move in with Cindy over and over again. In fact, my sons friend, Jeremy lived with us off and on for a few years. His mom was an alcoholic. But, Cindy and I are older and have commitments that prevent us from housing someone because they’ve been kicked out of the house. Our pantry provides food and clothing but not shelter. We can refer you to a shelter and assistance but we cannot move you into our homes. I’m sorry but we have husbands that don’t even have children of their own and want privacy. In fact they are entitled to some degree of privacy because being married to us is a literal circus of our adult children and grandchildren already. I’m being honest and transparent about this topic.

Hannah balked at my suggestion for family counseling with her mom but Hannah is expecting a child and needs to understand that living with her mother requires attempting to get along with her mother. I have no idea if there’s a relationship at all with Hannah’s mother but I know this, I’ve met Hannah’s mother and she opened her house to her. Hannah needs to follow her moms rules and attempt to get along.

Many of you are already aware that Tiger King is incarcerated at Fort Worth FMC. It’s a media circus there. If you are scheduled for a ceremony at FMC, PLEASE give yourself at least an hour to wade through the traffic. We must arrive on time.

Many of you are contacting me because your LO has made parole. Ceremonies outside of Walls Unit are a celebration of freedom and perfect opportunity to marry after release. I’m happy to meet you in Huntsville.

For everyone else as we continue to wait on visitation to be reinstated at your Unit, please do not send an absentee affidavit. This document is only valid 30 days once notarized. Law libraries get crispy about having to continuously notarize these Affidavits. Hold the affidavit until we are certain visitation has been reinstated and we can move forward.

Please be aware that although Missouri Affidavits have a longer shelf life that Texas will not accept a Missouri Absentee Affidavit.

Stay safe and try to stay positive. This cannot last forever. For client’s who were scheduled in March and April who were cancelled at TDCJ Units, when visitation is reinstated, contact me and I will split the cost of your replacement marriage licenses.

Please be aware that proxy marriage was banned within TDCJ in 2013. The new Administrative Directive pertaining to inmate marriages within TDCJ requires protocol and procedure to be followed. Meaning there have been no changes to the procedure. TDCJ must approve the marriage. You must be an approved visitor. Marriages must take place in person at the Unit the inmate is located at. There have been no changes to procedure that allow for phone or video call weddings. In fact, threw way calls are strictly prohibited. TDCJ will not change an inmates status to common law married unless this status was claimed going into the system. An inmate cannot be common law married if he isn’t living with you. CLM Affidavits are no longer an option after incarceration.

If your ceremony was not approved, it is not valid per TDCJ’s policies and procedures. TDCJ will not approve any wedding until visitation is reinstated as being on site is a requirement according to their guidelines. If someone is telling you otherwise, they are misleading you. Be aware of con artists. They are out there.

I follow all policy and procedure in every state and can assure you that trying to go around mandates isn’t a good idea or one that will work. We must follow all policies strictly and to the letter.

Regarding ICE ceremonies, there are still no visitation changes that have occurred. We must be on site and in person to get you married. If we cannot get access, we cannot get you married.

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Green Bay Unit to Parker County and Points Between..

I’ve had several clients contact me regarding Gov Abbott reopening the state and visitation. Often obtaining an Absentee Affidavit in smaller “country towns” can be a bit of a hurdle. This morning while in Parker County because my client was turned away yesterday and “just couldn’t bring herself to going back to the Parker County Annex again, I decided to go for her while I was in Weatherford.

Parker County is always a challenge. In the summer of 2015 I organized a picket in order to get my clients, “the first LBGT couple to marry in Parker County” a marriage license. I’m all too aware of how opinionated clerks in Parker County are.

Walking into the annex, the clerks office door is STILL locked. There was a gatekeeper who immediately stopped me and asked “what are you here for?” I answer “an Absentee Affidavit.” The gatekeeper “I don’t know what that is.” My patience for businesses that elect the dumbest person in the room to answer the phone or greet visitors is zero. I wish businesses would learn how they lose business by making dumb decisions but since the clerks office is a government business, I doubt they care.

I’m often “pitched” on an answering service or virtual assistant. The reason I don’t let anyone take calls or messages for me is because my clients want answers. Why waste their time and mine by hiring someone who doesn’t have any real answers to take my calls? I return calls, emails and DM’s between clients. I have all of the answers. If a client is flying in from another state, I also assist with travel arrangements and hotel suggestions to ensure they are in a safe area. No one could answer the questions I do on a daily basis FOR ME.

The gatekeeper stands there after making her statement about not knowing what an Absentee Affidavit is staring at me. I sigh. “Can you go find someone who is familiar with the forms pertaining to marriage that include an Absentee Affidavit?” My patience dealing with a gatekeeper is waning. I’m not going to stand there and educate her about what a clerks office does. She walks into the office and locks the door behind her. I wait.

Another clerk walks out and interviews me regarding why I need an Absentee Affidavit. This is why I do what I can to prevent my clients from encountering crispy clerks. I’m mailing Parker County Affidavits this afternoon.

I look forward to meeting all of you at your County Jail Wedding soon and CAN’T WAIT to get back on the road to TDCJ Units after an entire year…