(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . A Brief Update on my Son, and Myself [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-05-13 My son is being held in prison in a country not the US. I have written about this before, probably foolishly, and there are many reasons why I cannot and will not go into detail. It occurred to me that there may be kind-hearted people who remember and are concerned so I thought I would give a very brief update. Again, forgive me if I do not go into detail. Though my son is still being held we have made some progress on his situation. We have managed to get him into better accommodations inside the prison. He is in a group cell which is more comfortable and safer than his situation before. The phone we had smuggled in to him had some issues but we managed to get that fixed (of course possession of such a phone is against the rules, but perhaps fortunately the people in charge there don’t care about enforcing the rules as long as they get their bribes. But of course has to be careful when using it.) His health is better. He seems to have inherited my less than robust constitution and he has told me that the authorities there mock him for being ‘sickly’ but so far he is holding on in what is obviously an extremely unhealthy situation. (Frankly I only wrote about him here before because I thought he had died and I needed some way to express my grief.) In terms of arranging his release we have made some progress on that, though again, forgive me for not going into details. My son’s friend Richard (obviously not his real name) who is outside prison and bribes his way in to see my son at times is struggling in his own right. He digs pits for toilets for a living on a contract basis and sometimes his boss doesn’t pay him for his work. He is often forced to go hungry for days at a time, among other problems. I owe him a great deal. He is the one who found my son after he had been arrested when I had absolutely no idea where he was or what had happened to him. He is a true hero and a good young man. As for myself, I have no good days and my days that are not so good. Expectations were that I would not live to see my birthday but that was early in the year and I am still here. I have extremely high blood pressure and I have difficulty breathing sometimes. One night a few weeks ago I woke to find that I simply could not inhale. It was not a pleasant feeling. In my extremity I remembered having read that many people with such conditions are actually suffering spasms and need to stop trying to inhale and should exhale instead so I managed to do that and shook myself out of it. Hopefully not a preview of coming attractions. My energy levels are low and I am now spending hours every day in bed in the afternoons and evenings. I used to walk three miles a day every day but now I only have the strength to do it once a week. My body is simply running down, as it does to all us when we reach a certain age. I regret that my passing with affect others, my partner and my son and my friends in Ghana and elsewhere. But no man is an island and all that. When it is my time to go I will go, hopefully with no drama or regrets. But for now we all abide. For those who wish to offer advice, I do appreciate the thought but do understand that I am offering only the barest of outlines of the situation and that there are lawyers and other professionals involved. I am somewhat sensitive to advice because it is such a stressful situation to me, though I do understand that you are trying to help. I can only say that people are working on it. To those who don’t don’t believe me, believe as you will. As I said, I am not asking for advice and I am not asking for money. It frankly makes no difference whether anyone believes me or not. I will not interact with those who are determined to challenge me. To what purpose? I probably will not mention my son on this site again and my own personal health problems are something I have to deal with myself. So…. “You gotta walk that lonesome valley, you gotta walk it by yourself. “For nobody else can walk it for you. You gotta walk it by yourself.” and I will. Thank you for listening. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/5/13/2240450/-A-Brief-Update-on-my-Son-and-Myself?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/