The Winslow Affair
From James Donahue’s Journal
About 40 or 50-miles to the west of Holbrook is the town of Winslow. After it became apparent that the federal hospital job was not about to open for Doris, she decided to apply for a position in the lab at a small hospital operating in Winslow. We were pleasantly surprised that they hired her on the spot. She was asked to show up for work the following morning.
That created a problem for us. We had paid rent for the month on the two rooms in the Edwards motel and the long drive from there to Winslow was going to be a challenge. I didn’t want Doris to make the drive every day on her own, and the thought of driving her that far to work and then picking her up again at night was not something we wanted to do either. We drove around town looking for possible places to rent and came upon another older motel, located off the beaten path that offered weekly rentals at a very low rate. It was within walking distance from the hospital. We checked it out and found the rooms were clean and well furnished. They even had television, something we did not have in Holbrook. We rented the room and moved Doris in. The idea was that Jennifer and I would continue staying at Holbrook until the month was out and we decided what to do next.
We lived at Holbrook but I drove to Winslow at night to stay with Doris when possible. We set her up with a few small appliances, a small microwave, a coffee maker, and other things, so she also had the equivalent of a small apartment in Winslow. She was there on Christmas so Jennifer and I drove to Winslow to celebrate the holiday with Doris in that place. We could all watch television in the room, which was nice.
Some nights I didn’t go to Winslow. And that turned out to be a mistake. We saw drunken Indians around the town, but never thought a small place like Winslow would be a very rough or dangerous place. Indeed, the motel was low cost and some of the renters were scum, much like we found at the Edwards motel, but we didn’t consider them dangerous either. One night, while she was there alone, there was a big fight just outside her motel door. I think someone might have been stabbed because there was blood on the cement the next day. Doris said it got so loud that she feared for her own safety. She called upon the Universe for protection and was surprised when the room was filled with the soft violet light of the Archangel Michael. When she knew he was by her side, she said she felt safe.
That first week went so well for Doris she decided she was going to like her job. After the fight at the motel, we started looking in earnest for a home to live in. We contacted a local realtor and were shown some places for sale. We quickly found a nice two or three-bedroom, one-story house in a nice part of town that had a garage and a large backyard with room for a garden. It seemed perfect and the price was right. We thought about it over the weekend, and in the end we filled out the papers and made an offer.
I took the papers to the realtor that Monday morning after I took Doris to work. We were quite excited about the prospect of actually having a home again and having a place to settle. And that very day Doris’ job went right to hell. Her boss left to take a week off during the holidays and left the lab under the supervision of his girl friend, a Filipino who apparently decided that she did not like Doris. She and Doris got into a disagreement that morning over some procedure that Doris knew was incorrect. The woman refused to do her share of the work and put extra demands on Doris. Finally Doris had enough. She walked off the job when the woman interrupted her lunch period and demanded that another test be done. Hospital staff pleaded with Doris to stay, but she knew that if this woman was going to be second in charge of that lab, she was never going to have any peace.
As soon as I heard what happened I was panic struck. We had just made an offer to buy a house. I called the realtor and asked if the owner had accepted. They had not. So we quickly withdrew our offer and got out of that deal by the skin of our teeth. Had they accepted we would have been legally committed to buying a house in a town where neither Doris nor I had work. And that was a shame. I often think of that house. It would have been the perfect retirement home. It was well kept, and just the right size for the two of us, plus Jennifer until she chose to leave the roost.
So it was that we all moved back to the Edwards Motel. But that was to be for only a very brief time.
From James Donahue’s Journal
About 40 or 50-miles to the west of Holbrook is the town of Winslow. After it became apparent that the federal hospital job was not about to open for Doris, she decided to apply for a position in the lab at a small hospital operating in Winslow. We were pleasantly surprised that they hired her on the spot. She was asked to show up for work the following morning.
That created a problem for us. We had paid rent for the month on the two rooms in the Edwards motel and the long drive from there to Winslow was going to be a challenge. I didn’t want Doris to make the drive every day on her own, and the thought of driving her that far to work and then picking her up again at night was not something we wanted to do either. We drove around town looking for possible places to rent and came upon another older motel, located off the beaten path that offered weekly rentals at a very low rate. It was within walking distance from the hospital. We checked it out and found the rooms were clean and well furnished. They even had television, something we did not have in Holbrook. We rented the room and moved Doris in. The idea was that Jennifer and I would continue staying at Holbrook until the month was out and we decided what to do next.
We lived at Holbrook but I drove to Winslow at night to stay with Doris when possible. We set her up with a few small appliances, a small microwave, a coffee maker, and other things, so she also had the equivalent of a small apartment in Winslow. She was there on Christmas so Jennifer and I drove to Winslow to celebrate the holiday with Doris in that place. We could all watch television in the room, which was nice.
Some nights I didn’t go to Winslow. And that turned out to be a mistake. We saw drunken Indians around the town, but never thought a small place like Winslow would be a very rough or dangerous place. Indeed, the motel was low cost and some of the renters were scum, much like we found at the Edwards motel, but we didn’t consider them dangerous either. One night, while she was there alone, there was a big fight just outside her motel door. I think someone might have been stabbed because there was blood on the cement the next day. Doris said it got so loud that she feared for her own safety. She called upon the Universe for protection and was surprised when the room was filled with the soft violet light of the Archangel Michael. When she knew he was by her side, she said she felt safe.
That first week went so well for Doris she decided she was going to like her job. After the fight at the motel, we started looking in earnest for a home to live in. We contacted a local realtor and were shown some places for sale. We quickly found a nice two or three-bedroom, one-story house in a nice part of town that had a garage and a large backyard with room for a garden. It seemed perfect and the price was right. We thought about it over the weekend, and in the end we filled out the papers and made an offer.
I took the papers to the realtor that Monday morning after I took Doris to work. We were quite excited about the prospect of actually having a home again and having a place to settle. And that very day Doris’ job went right to hell. Her boss left to take a week off during the holidays and left the lab under the supervision of his girl friend, a Filipino who apparently decided that she did not like Doris. She and Doris got into a disagreement that morning over some procedure that Doris knew was incorrect. The woman refused to do her share of the work and put extra demands on Doris. Finally Doris had enough. She walked off the job when the woman interrupted her lunch period and demanded that another test be done. Hospital staff pleaded with Doris to stay, but she knew that if this woman was going to be second in charge of that lab, she was never going to have any peace.
As soon as I heard what happened I was panic struck. We had just made an offer to buy a house. I called the realtor and asked if the owner had accepted. They had not. So we quickly withdrew our offer and got out of that deal by the skin of our teeth. Had they accepted we would have been legally committed to buying a house in a town where neither Doris nor I had work. And that was a shame. I often think of that house. It would have been the perfect retirement home. It was well kept, and just the right size for the two of us, plus Jennifer until she chose to leave the roost.
So it was that we all moved back to the Edwards Motel. But that was to be for only a very brief time.