By the four month of being late on our rent, my in laws started getting really angry and very abusive over the phone. My husband was beside himself with worry over not being able to pay his father the rent. But we thought that they would understand that this was not something we planned on. It wasn't like we were out drinking our money away, or that we weren't putting drugs in our veins and abusing the children. It was solely based on the economy and we were doing all we could to muddle through each day and night.
One night, my father in law called. He and my husband were now having a yelling match. Actually, my father in law was doing all the yelling and my husband was in tears while he was being hammered by his own father. My father in law told us we had twelve days to get out of his house. Twelve days! We had lived in this home for a decade, and now because my husband, their son, had hit a bad patch, they were tossing us out of the house. It was the end of January when he had called to tell us we had twelve days. Why twelve days? Because he and my mother in law sold the house. Instead of being a little more patient with their own son and their grandchildren, they sold the house and made quite a tiddy profit from it. He told the new owner, she could move in, in twelve days.
I was stunned dear readers, and did not know what to do. I sank to the floor in the kitchen and just began to cry. I was so crushed. I couldn't believe they would toss us out in the dead of winter, without blinking an eye. I called my mother in law back to hear it from her lips because I truly didn't believe it. She also told me during that call, that she would rather I never tell our children what they were doing to us. She told me that she would rather I tell my children that she and her husband were dead. Dead! Can you believe such dear ones?! I told her I would never do that.
We went to the Rental Assistance Program in Toms River and asked if they could possibly help us out. We explained to them our situation, and showed them the letter that my in laws had written to us, demanding that we vacate within twelve days. They were absolutely appalled. They couldn't believe after we had been living there for nearly a decade, paid our rent for all these years, that now they were tossing us in the street with three of their grandchildren, and selling it from under us. They offered to give us the four months back rent and only needed a copy of the C of O, Certificate of Occupancy. But my in laws refused such. They wanted us out! The State of New Jersey offered to take them to court on our behalf, because what they were doing was illegal. But my husband couldn't bring himself to take his own parents to court. So with that, we had but one choice, get out in twelve days.
My in laws and my two brother in laws, came all the way up from Virginia just to help us throw our belongings into hefty bags and move us out. Nothing was wrapped, no care was taken, just a speedy bag and go operation. Luckily for me, I had known several Real Estate people from my Paralegal days. I called one frantically one night, and asked him if he had anything we could move into right away. He was very kind and although he had nothing big enough for the five of us, he did allow us to move into a two family, one bedroom, upstairs apartment. The night we moved in, it was a blizzard outside. Ice was everywhere, and they were just bringing our things over by the bag, for several hours. The one bedroom felt like a coffin. It was so small - we used the living room as a bedroom for me and my husband, a very small living room. And we used the bedroom for all three kids. We had a small kitchen - and a bath. The kitchen table we were using at my in laws was left there when they had moved to Virginia, so we had used it all that time. But when we were tossed out, my father in law refused to let us use that table. So we had no kitchen table in the one bedroom. I had to find one that was tossed in the garbage to use so that our kids had a place to sit and eat. That first night of being there, I laid in the bed and looked around in the pitch black at where we had ended up. I cried myself to sleep. We still had no heat and no phone. The small stove was electric, and we were lucky to have electric. The people downstairs had heat, and it somehow rose enough to keep our place livable.
