My Life in Argentina and Beyond

Monday, August 31, 2009: While the world debates the health care issue in the U.S. and politicians have it out with one another, what happens to those of us who are uninsured? Are we to go on without medical care forever? or are we so umimportant as voters and as human beings that we will just die? It is a great deep shame that such a thing as this should go on in this day and age.

Friday, August 28, 2009: The soft glow of the yellow light was on the kitchen table. The woman watching TV just before she had to leave the house she had been cleaning all afternoon. This is a house, she thought to herself. It looks, feels and is a real house. Why can't I have something like this again? And then, she remembered why: the mortgage fraud/foreclosure experience in GA took away my savings and the gumption I used to have. How can I fight and keep fighting when everything is a great big NO? How can I possibly get anywhere when there is that obstacle, this other obstacle to overcome? Reluctantly, the woman took the heavy bags in her hand and closed the door. She walked with sadness in her heart to the subway stop. One more coming, one more going back. Always going back. I want to be used to these small, tiny trips back and forth, but I am not, she thought. I will never get used to them.

Thursday, August 27, 2009: I had a dream this morning where I was telling someone about my foreclosure experience in GA. i told him (i think it was a friend) how desperate it had made me feel and how helpless I feel and have felt at not being able to get justice and/or my money back.

The priest remains celibate (to the world, at least) while he has someone on the side and she is left holding the bag. It did not happen to me, but I have met women who have lived this situation. It is worse than living a lie because it goes on and on. Eugenia Renskoff

I will always miss Leo. He was a little rough around the edges but he had a good heart, almost as good a heart as Rubio. And he slept with Lauchita and me—that I will never forget or cease to be grateful for that protective gesture. Leo must have thought that as long as he did not leave his home, he would never lose it. That’s why he never wanted to go out on walks. Once he left the protection of his home, he must have believed he would never be taken back there. A home meant so much to him—and a family that would never betray him by dumping him in the park again.

William, I can and if you continue sue you for defamation if you continue like this. You have written lies and you know it. You only wrote what you call the review because I said that I had been in love with a priest and that idea was not to your liking. The person (he is a man, even though he is a priest) is none of your business. Do I ask you for the name of your girlfriend or wife? No. I have written a book and it was well received by people. I will write to amazon again. Christians are charitable. That in no way describes you. Eugenia Renskoff

Your review on www.amazon.com of my novel Different Flags has been called to my attention. There is no way that I can let your lies do their nasty thing. I never paid Delinger’s or any other publisher to have any of my work published. I am a writer and a darn good one. The publisher paid me, the author, royalties. My book may have some autobiographical elements in it, but it is not an autobiography. It never was intended to be an autobiography. I am very proud of my book because not only did it receive excellent reviews (from both reviewers and readers), it told the truth about a very controversial subject—Priestly Celibacy. I loved that man and he loved me. I never seduced him. The experience of loving him has been one of the most beautiful and exciting of my life. Let me end by saying that I have grounds to sue you for defamation and that you are not a Christian. It is a shame that you should call yourself one. I don’t know you and I never talked to you. I have written to amazon and told them about the falsehood of the things that you have written on their site. Eugenia Renskoff

Friday, August 14, 2009: Soup Kitchen, 5 P.M. Sharp: The line was already long, mostly men. I asked James, the volunteer supervisor if it was still Ladies First policy. Yes, he said, going inside. I took my place a foot or two from a man wearing brown/white military-type pants, a white T-shirt and black L.A. Gear-like shoes. “Get back to the end of the line,” he told me in a loud voice. “No, I answered.” James just said it is Ladies First.” “Get back to the end of the line, or I’ll kick you in the face,” he told me, his voice becoming louder. “No, I repeated. “Go ask him if you don’t believe me. It is Ladies First.” Again, he told me to get to the end of the line. I looked at the other men and knew I’d get no help from them. I walked up the wooden plank to the cafeteria door and, once inside, asked for James. After I repeated what the man had threatened to do, James said: No, he won’t. He, another volunteer and I walked outside. “The Coalition policy is Ladies first,” he told the guy.” Just so she doesn’t stand next to me”, was the man’s reply. I had not been standing next to him. James went to the cafeteria and brought me his folding chair for me to sit on. I was very grateful and I felt protected, something I have not felt for a long time.

If there is one thing that Argentina has it is good looking priests. I have seen that a lot and in my novel Different Flags, Padre Luis, is very attractive. That said, I also know about nuns (and other women) drooling. I have seen it often. I mean Optional Celibacy for both men and women. As someone I loved once said: Women are human beings too. She was referring to nuns. She knew some who left to get married and raise a family. Because of my own Forbidden Love, I would love to see optional Celibacy in the Church in my lifetime. It will in no way benefit me personally, but it would bring me relief and peace of mind. And the women in love with priests (I mean truly in love and not just lust, all that) will be relieved too.

Saturday, August 8, 2009: Of all the unfortunate experiences I have had this time back in the U.S., the unexpected death of my dog in Argentina is the one that I regret the most. That is the one thing that makes me sadder than all the rest. Chiquito was a stray that I adopted shortly before my trip over here. I wish I had been able to bring him with me (I had his doggie passport and everything). The reception we would have received (Chiquito, Lauchita and me) would not have been good. Nevertheless, it would have been better to get him on the plane. If anybody was my soul mate, that dog was.