The Dakota Episode
From James Donahue’s Journal
One day when communicating with the entities via her board, Doris and I were told that we had important jobs to do in the future months and that we needed to get ourselves prepared. Doris was instructed to quit her job at the Cass City hospital and go to South Dakota, where she would be given a job in a government hospital at Wounded Knee on the Lakota Indian reservation. The entity said she should contact her future employer at a federal office in Aberdeen.
I wrote in a personal diary that I was concerned about staking our lives on the advice of “a will-o’-the-wisp . . . words from a Ouija board.” Doris called, mostly out of curiosity, and discovered that there was such a town, and such an office really existed there. She asked about working among the Indians in South Dakota and was informed that government hospitals were operating and staff workers are always in demand.
It was in April, 1995 that the board instructed Doris to quit her job in Cass City and leave right away for Wounded Knee. I was instructed to remain behind, get the house ready and put it up for sale by June 1. It said we would be holding an auction on July 1 to dispose of all of our belongings. We were assured that the house would be sold within the month. Somehow we believed all of this might just happen. It is difficult even now to understand just what was going through our heads at the time. Doris resigned her job, and she and Jennifer packed the Celebrity and prepared for the move to Wounded Knee.
Doris packed that car so heavily that every square inch of space was crammed. We rented a U-Haul car-top carrier and still more things were packed in that. The car was so laden the day they drove off that I think the vehicle was scraping the ground at every bump. Doris believed she would not be coming back and took everything she thought she was going to need, including her pots and pans, her clothes, blankets and even food.
It was a sad day for me when I watched them drive off. I saw the whole thing as a crazy scheme, concocted because of a message Doris received on her board. But because the information proved to be quite accurate, right down to the name of the man Doris was to contact to apply for the job she was promised, we had to think that there was something valid in the data. Here we were at the end of our working careers, getting ready for a comfortable retirement, and Doris had quit her job. She and Jennifer were plunging off into the unknown on an adventure that might well lead to financial ruin. All I could do was trust in the Universe to protect us in whatever venture now awaited us.
I spent the days installing sitting on the back of the house, finishing a closet that I was building in our bedroom, filling book orders and working on my new idea for a historical romance in a novel. I received nightly telephone calls from Doris and Jennifer so was keeping abreast of what was happening with them.
They got to South Dakota and Doris was offered a part-time position at a hospital at a remote area in the Lakota Reservation, not far from Wounded Knee. There was a promise that she would be given a full-time position as soon as one became available. Because it was only a part time position, the government could not provide “on-campus” housing, or housing near the hospital. The nearest place for her to find a place to rent was an estimated 30 miles away in Rapid City. The locals warned that driving that distance in the winter months would require a four-wheel-drive truck. Even then, they warned, she might not get through because of the heavy snows.
Both Jennifer and Doris said they fell in love with the area and really wanted to work something out. Jennifer thought that if she could get a job in Rapid City and if they could find a rental place, they might try it. But there were no jobs. The more they talked it over with each other and the local residents, the more impossible the obstacles appeared to be. Without a full-time job on the reservation, and without government supplied housing near the hospital, it was going to be almost impossible for her to accept a job there.
Instead of driving back home, the girls hatched a strange plan to continue on to California to visit Aaron. They thought that since they had already driven as far as they had, they must be close to California. They did not realize how far they had yet to go. On the long journey, they got so tired of lugging so much personal stuff in the car they stopped at a roadside park and began dumping things they didn’t need in public trash containers. By the time they reached El Cerrito they had really lightened their load. Eventually I think they even emptied the cart-top carrier and dropped it off at a U-Haul dealership.
They found themselves unwelcome at Aaron’s. There was no bed for them to sleep on so they were forced to stay in a run-down motel at the bottom of the hill that appeared to be a hangout for prostitutes and drug dealers. They didn’t stay long and drove the long haul back to Michigan. Doris got her old job back at Cass City Hospital and we soon settled back into our old way of life. Or so we thought.
From James Donahue’s Journal
One day when communicating with the entities via her board, Doris and I were told that we had important jobs to do in the future months and that we needed to get ourselves prepared. Doris was instructed to quit her job at the Cass City hospital and go to South Dakota, where she would be given a job in a government hospital at Wounded Knee on the Lakota Indian reservation. The entity said she should contact her future employer at a federal office in Aberdeen.
I wrote in a personal diary that I was concerned about staking our lives on the advice of “a will-o’-the-wisp . . . words from a Ouija board.” Doris called, mostly out of curiosity, and discovered that there was such a town, and such an office really existed there. She asked about working among the Indians in South Dakota and was informed that government hospitals were operating and staff workers are always in demand.
It was in April, 1995 that the board instructed Doris to quit her job in Cass City and leave right away for Wounded Knee. I was instructed to remain behind, get the house ready and put it up for sale by June 1. It said we would be holding an auction on July 1 to dispose of all of our belongings. We were assured that the house would be sold within the month. Somehow we believed all of this might just happen. It is difficult even now to understand just what was going through our heads at the time. Doris resigned her job, and she and Jennifer packed the Celebrity and prepared for the move to Wounded Knee.
Doris packed that car so heavily that every square inch of space was crammed. We rented a U-Haul car-top carrier and still more things were packed in that. The car was so laden the day they drove off that I think the vehicle was scraping the ground at every bump. Doris believed she would not be coming back and took everything she thought she was going to need, including her pots and pans, her clothes, blankets and even food.
It was a sad day for me when I watched them drive off. I saw the whole thing as a crazy scheme, concocted because of a message Doris received on her board. But because the information proved to be quite accurate, right down to the name of the man Doris was to contact to apply for the job she was promised, we had to think that there was something valid in the data. Here we were at the end of our working careers, getting ready for a comfortable retirement, and Doris had quit her job. She and Jennifer were plunging off into the unknown on an adventure that might well lead to financial ruin. All I could do was trust in the Universe to protect us in whatever venture now awaited us.
I spent the days installing sitting on the back of the house, finishing a closet that I was building in our bedroom, filling book orders and working on my new idea for a historical romance in a novel. I received nightly telephone calls from Doris and Jennifer so was keeping abreast of what was happening with them.
They got to South Dakota and Doris was offered a part-time position at a hospital at a remote area in the Lakota Reservation, not far from Wounded Knee. There was a promise that she would be given a full-time position as soon as one became available. Because it was only a part time position, the government could not provide “on-campus” housing, or housing near the hospital. The nearest place for her to find a place to rent was an estimated 30 miles away in Rapid City. The locals warned that driving that distance in the winter months would require a four-wheel-drive truck. Even then, they warned, she might not get through because of the heavy snows.
Both Jennifer and Doris said they fell in love with the area and really wanted to work something out. Jennifer thought that if she could get a job in Rapid City and if they could find a rental place, they might try it. But there were no jobs. The more they talked it over with each other and the local residents, the more impossible the obstacles appeared to be. Without a full-time job on the reservation, and without government supplied housing near the hospital, it was going to be almost impossible for her to accept a job there.
Instead of driving back home, the girls hatched a strange plan to continue on to California to visit Aaron. They thought that since they had already driven as far as they had, they must be close to California. They did not realize how far they had yet to go. On the long journey, they got so tired of lugging so much personal stuff in the car they stopped at a roadside park and began dumping things they didn’t need in public trash containers. By the time they reached El Cerrito they had really lightened their load. Eventually I think they even emptied the cart-top carrier and dropped it off at a U-Haul dealership.
They found themselves unwelcome at Aaron’s. There was no bed for them to sleep on so they were forced to stay in a run-down motel at the bottom of the hill that appeared to be a hangout for prostitutes and drug dealers. They didn’t stay long and drove the long haul back to Michigan. Doris got her old job back at Cass City Hospital and we soon settled back into our old way of life. Or so we thought.