In Atlanta, there was a bookstore that had a café in it. And that was the café where Tighre and Frolic worked. They used to help serve sandwiches. One Wednesday morning, I was sitting in the bookstore with my daughter, and she said to me, “That cute guy is looking at us, mom.” He was. It was Tighre. Soon, my daughter had to go wherever she was going, and when she left Tighre came over and started talking to me. We immediately had a rapport. We had this long conversation that was lovely, “Who are you? What do you do? What are you interested in?” It turned out that we both liked Tai Chi and Yoga. And Tighre asked me if I had ever meditated. I said sure. And then he asked if I’d ever meditated in a group and I said, “Not for a long time.” So he invited me to a group meditation that he went to on Sunday nights… (I actually didn’t know until the end of the evening that everyone at the meditation knew each other… I thought it was just like a yoga class. You go to a meditation and people just turn up.) I accepted of course. I thought he was adorable. Lovely, warm, sweet. And I gave him my phone number and left to do whatever I was doing… picked up the kids and came home. When I walked in, my house mate said, “Oh, this guy called and said he met you this morning and wanted to know what we were doing this evening. I told him nothing so he’s coming over.” So, I was like, “OK.” So now I’m thinking this guy was totally into me. Because when I had left the café, he had given me the most beautiful, warm hug and it was like: here was this beautiful guy, and he was into me, and how nice. Anyway, he turned up with Frolic and we all had a gorgeous evening. We all just adored each other. They asked if they could come back on Friday night. And we all just loved each other.
So, I went to the meeting on Sunday night. The satsang meetings were held at a house where a whole lot of the BF people were living together… but I didn’t know that everyone there knew each other then. I actually walked in late. Everyone was already sitting and meditating (before anybody started sharing.)-- I’m pretty sure it was Frolic sharing satsang that night – and it was the whole production with this chair and the flowers and everything. It was at the end of the evening that I realized all these people I had met were there all knew each other. And it was lovely. I think Simone was traveling at that point but he came a few weeks later and literally, from that day, we became this big extended family. I remember one snowstorm – I had a very large house and Atlanta shuts down when it snows – I had fourteen people in my house. Everyone from the BF was there. We were drawing, we were writing, we were sleeping, people were in my bathtub… and we were this very big extended loving family. Plus at that time my son was going through a difficult time, dealing with the divorce. And Tighre and Frolic would go to the gym with him and take him swimming and to play basketball… a pretty good substitute for the males in his life… His dad was bipolar and his “out there” behavior was one of the things that contributed to our divorce. So for my son, who was about 12 at the time, it was wonderful. I was 38 then. Around 1990.So that’s how I met everyone. It felt like the group was an instant family.
They talked about Angelo. (There were pictures of him in the house even though there weren’t supposed to be.) Also, I got to hear tapes of his sharing. The focus of the group was “We’re meeting because of him.” The story at that time was that one of the girls in the group had been stalked and the group had split up. I was aware of that… that there were people in different cities. And then people in our group started to leave. Tighre was one of the first, and we were very close. He and I would do tons of things together. So it was very touching when he left. And when he left it was because he was “going traveling” and didn’t know if he would see me again. And then others would leave and when everyone was leaving they would ask if I wanted to come with them but they did say my kids could not come. And it was very clear to me that there was no way in hell I was going to abandon my children. And my kids had come to satsang in Atlanta – they came to everything. They were very much a part of the group. They were just not allowed to come where Angelo was. I was just told that if I wanted to come, I could, but they couldn’t. So it was very clear. They said that they wanted me to be there… and that I needed to be there…Of course I would never abandon my kids….I don’t think abandonment is a very conscious or compassionate thing to do, do you?
It was interesting actually because when my daughter left school she went traveling and Simone had been in contact with her. After everybody left Atlanta, I was asked to mail things for people. They kept a mailbox in Atlanta and they’d send things to my house for me to mail – part of maintaining the façade that people still lived in Atlanta (they didn’t want people to know where they were.) So I was very involved in that way. And then when my daughter was traveling cross-country and she was invited to come to Austin, but Simone told her, “Your mother is not to know where you are.” And she was absolutely horrified. She was like, “What the f.ck are you talking about? My mother was in there with everyone else. We were all doing class together. I know you still are in contact with her.” So she actually freaked out and didn’t come. And she would have come if he had not said, “Don’t tell your mom.”
They were in Atlanta around 2 years. And I never saw Angelo during that time. I spoke to him once on the phone (although he denied it was him.) I knew it was him because I’d heard his voice on a tape. But he called to speak to Frolic and I answered. So that was my only contact with him. And then everybody was gone.
