Jan. 2, 2017

A big thank you to a stranger

From Prison Dad by Robert Pezzeca (author's profile)

Transcription

A big thank you to a stranger
12/20/16: 2:30am: Listening to: Taciturn By: Stone Sour
Dear JC,
Hi, thank you very much for printing that out for me. I truly appreciate it. One thing people don't understand is that we have no real access to information, society, human contact, so that makes life a lot harder in here so when we have people that can do this for us, it is very much appreciated. I am sorry to hear about your friend. I am sorry to say she is in for a rough road but let me tell you what's going to help her, having a friend who loves her be there for her. It matters more than you can understand. So don't ever bail on her, if she needs you, be there for her. Letters, phone calls, human contact, it matters. It's what keeps a lot of us alive in here. And no one ever did this for me but if you can go online, find some of those free pen pal websites, put her on it, she will find men who will want to write to her, maybe even visit, they will send her money sometimes, she can develop friendships & connection with people in the world. It will help keep her sane, feeling loved & alive. No one would ever do that for em so I struggled but she is just starting this nightmare of a life so these are just some of the ways you can help her. If you have any questions about anything else that you might be able to or want to do for her, just ask. I'll always be straight up. If your friend has kids, prison will be rougher for her than me. I barely know my child but for women, to be ripped apart from their babies, it tears them up. Just be her friend, don't forget her. When we feel forgotten in here, that's when it gets bad.
You did more than just help me, you showed me an act of kindness & I appreciate it JC. The beginning of a life sentence is very scary. You just never know what will happen, you trust the wrong people because you want to fit in, be accepted, you don't want trouble. If you ever need to talk about your friend, feel free. I was serious about a pen pal site. Find some of the free ones (I'm sure you can google this) & put her on it. Once she develops connections, friends, maybe even a little romance after a while, she will have some happiness in her life. In here, happiness doesn't exist, so when we can have it, we grasp onto it & hold on for dear life. I've been here for 19 years almost & it gets harder but every friend I ever had in the world has bailed on me. All the so-called friends I had from when I was free, all gone.
When you are lonely, having a bad day, just getting a letter from a friend means the world to us. A few years ago I had a friend who was in a women's prison. She was in an abusive relationship & the only way she saw out of it was to go to jail. Her husband almost beat her to death many times. She committed an armed robbery, let the cops catch her & went to prison for 6 years. She wrote me, but then her letters turned into a fantasy relationship if you know what I mean. They turned physical. But we had never been like that, just friends. She said she wanted this because I was an attractive man & she needed to feel like a woman again. Years in prison & she felt ugly & unattractive but in reality she was a beauty without makeup on. So I gave her what she needed. Eventually your friend will want to be needed, loved, appreciated, not just by a friend but by a man so hook her up & she will have some happiness.
I am 100% okay with you not giving out your address. You are married & most men would be extremely jealous, & yes I definitely would if my wife were writing to men in prison even if just as a friend. But don't be no stranger on my blog. Okay (: Well it is getting late so I must go. Take care, go help your friend & you know where to find me. God Bless, Ciao. I have family in Warren Mi, near you? Can you help me locate some family? I am trying to find my great uncle's son, Anton Pizzica (yes his last name si the original spelling of my family's) also his wife is Becky Pizzica. Another is Toni Pizzica, Born 1975. We think they lived in Maryland. If you can help, great, if not, it's okay. ciao.

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j.c. Posted 7 years, 2 months ago. ✓ Mailed 7 years, 2 months ago   Favorite
1-8-17

Rob -
It cut me off on my other reply so thought I would bop over here and make sure I answered all the questions you asked. I see you wrote a lot of posts around Christmas time - very good writing! You do a great job of painting the picture of what it is really like in there. I'm sorry that's your reality.

I am glad you enjoyed the printouts, and that you hadn't received them before. I tried to look up the family members you mentioned and didn't have any luck. There are a couple more sites I can try, which I will do later. I want to get this finished before the deadline. They say they will mail the responses to you tomorrow.

You asked if my friend T. has kids, yes she does. Two girls, age 9 and 15. It is such a sad situation for all of them. She got to speak to them at Xmas for the first time in a year. Their dad is not keen on them having contact. She also colored some beautiful pictures for them, and I put them in frames and wrapped them up for the girls for Xmas. I found the dad did let them have them. T's mom - their grandma - sent me a pic of them holding the framed coloring pages. Heartbreaking.

Your Christmas posts with the memories were really good. Keep that kind of stuff alive in your heart and mind. You asked what our favorite gifts were. Have you heard of the Amazon Echo - otherwise known as Alexa? It is a little hockey puck shaped thing that you can talk to. It accesses the internet and can answer questions, play music, order things for you, all sorts of things. The voice that talks back is named Alexa (it's a female voice). Well, I got one and I love this thing! It is so useful.

I read what you wrote about the puppy dogs. I'm a huge dog lover too. We have two big dogs - Red and Daisy. Red is a registered therapy dog and I take him to an adult day care center to visit the guests there. Dogs are so special and I'm a big fan of the prison dog training programs! Get yourself some puppy love anytime you can - it's magical!

Better close for now, I can see I am running out of space again.

Peace - j.c.

Robert Pezzeca Posted 7 years, 1 month ago.   Favorite
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j.c. Posted 7 years, 1 month ago. ✓ Mailed 7 years, 1 month ago   Favorite
2-7-17

Hi Robert -
I put the email addresses for the PA Representatives in the mail to you along with a letter. You will probably receive that first. I realized I didn't speak to all the points you brought up in your letter.

I will raise the penpal idea with T. again. I had asked her in a JPay message and she didn't respond. She only has a few minutes a week to get on there and isn't always able to answer all the questions I ask her in that time! I think her and her bunkie would find that a good way to pass the time. They are locked down 23 hours per day together in their small cell.

You also wrote about Alexa. I love that thing! It is quite easy to use. You can ask her anything. Alexa does best with simple things, like "what is the weather?", or "what is on my calendar today?". She does not always know the answer, but a lot of it is in how you phrase the question. If you keep it simple, most often she will know. For example, we had some medicine that was out of the original box. The pack of the foil packet said it was diphenhydramine. We were pretty sure it was Benadryl, so we asked Alexa - "Is Benadryl diphenhydramine?" She didn't know. Then we asked "what is diphenhydramine?" and she replied "that is the active ingredient in Benadryl." So it's funny that way.

We use it a lot to play music. You just say "Alexa play some country music" and it plays a country radio station from Amazon. You can do it with any genre. At Christmas, we would say "Alexa, play some Christmas music" and it did so!

You can also use Alexa to order things on Amazon. I have found it works best to reorder things that you've ordered in the past. Just the other day, I needed more of our vitamins, so I asked Alexa to reorder. Two days later, they were delivered.

Well, not to babble on about Alexa but you did ask. ;) LOL The rest you will find in the letter I sent. Hope to hear from you soon!

j.c.

Robert Pezzeca Posted 7 years ago.   Favorite
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j.c. Posted 7 years ago. ✓ Mailed 7 years ago   Favorite
Hi Robert,
I did get your other reply - thank you! And I think I said in another response that they have your old address on your profile page. I have the correct one now, but you might want to get it corrected on there if you can for others!

Our trip was nice. It was just me and my husband, with a little stopover to see my friend (college roommate), her husband and their new house on the way out to our hiking vacation at Joshua Tree. To answer your question, a 7-8 mile hike is about the longest I like to do. I am in OK shape, I could stand to lose a few pounds definitely! Maybe if I did I could go on a longer hike - LOL.

CA is about the furthest away I've been. I've not seen a whole lot of it, though. Two trips were to San Francisco when my friend used to live there. Now she lives outside of LA and we have now been to that area twice. On this trip we ventured out to the Mohave Desert - Palm Springs and then on to JT National Park.

I am going to check into the GTL messaging you mentioned in a previous post, it might be a more expedient way to be in touch regarding these projects you mention, both of which are great ideas! I think your desire to make a difference is awesome and maybe I can help.

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