Sunday, March 8, 2009

Minnetonka, MN

I'd like to report a sighting of Marilyn Gibbs that happened around March, 2008. My dad and I were driving near the Ridgedale Center in Minnetonka, MN, just outside of Minneapolis, and as we stopped at a red light, she approached from the median, and signaled for my dad to roll down his window, which he did. She handed us a 15-page photocopied pamphlet, said something like, "I'm an activist!", and then walked on, presumably to other stopped cars. I still have the pamphlet, and I happened to be typing in the words "Mrs. Kunston Sawyer Rodwin Ringwald" to Google, and that's how I found this blog. The last few pages of the pamphlet include bus and train tickets that appear to map out her itinerary: from Effingham, IL to Sacramento, CA by Greyhound in January, 2008; from Martinsburg, WV to Chicago and then to Minot, ND by Amtrak in February, 2008; then from Bismarck, ND to Fargo and Grand Forks by March 8. She has handwritten next to the ticket "Crookston, Bemidji, St Paul, Golden Valley," which I assume is how she ended up where we encountered her. In retrospect, I feel kind of honored to have run into Marilyn, and I hope she ends up safe.

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Valdosta, GA

I work a domestic violence shelter in Valdosta, a woman called our crisis line around 5:00 pm saying she had been given a ride by a elderly couple because she was walking from another home that she and her boyfriend were at. The woman refused to give her name or tell if there was any abuse. She was told she could not come in unless she could give us her name (its our policy). She gave the phone to the elderly couple and they said that the woman would not leave their home and was becoming upset and yelling. It was suggested that they call the police. Later that evening around 8:00 the lady showed up at our dv shelter. It was explained to her the process in which we accept people into the shelter. She refused to leave saying that her boyfriend was a cop in another county. The shelter was forced to call the police to remove her from the premises, she left but later called back to know why the police was called on her. She stilled wanted to come into the shelter but again she was refused because of behavior. She was volatile and hostile and could not be place in the shelter with other women who were seeking safe shelter.. Later that night the shelter was called again but this time it was from our local homeless shelter, they had the same lady there and she told them that our shelter employees dropped her off there which was not true, but at least she gave them a name, Marilyn Gibbs. All in all it was a really scary situation.