may 1Z» 2002-
nromraìnews
R
ecovering from a coma is hard
enough. Now imagine whking up
to the news that, while you were
under, your homophobic mother
tried to sabotage your relationship
and move you out of state against your will.
For Marlene Booth, this scenario wasn’t a
nightmare— it was her reality. Today she and
her partner of two years, Melissa Mills, are try
ing to put the pieces of their lives back together.
Booth has Wagners disease, a terminal illness
that affects the autoimmune system by attacking
vital organs. It usually starts in the lungs, then
moves to the kidneys, liver, eyes and ears.
Some patients will have an episode without
a recurrence. Some will he dead three months
after they’re diagnosed.
Booth first was hospitalized on her 40th
birthday Feh. 6; within three days she was on life
support. Doctors diagnosed her a week later after
performing a lung biopsy.
“I remember driving to the hospital and call
ing people and letting them know,” Booth says.
“The next thing 1 know they’re taking the ven
tilator tube out of me.”
Booth was in the hospital for almost a
month. She was either in a coma or incoherent
for about 15 days altogether.
During this time Mills says the mother
“made a mess of our lives.” The couple had been
living apart— Mills in West Linn, Booth in
Hillsboro— since a fire destroyed their home last
year. They say they reluctantly separated after
ward because the mother had offered financial
assistance on the condition that they live apart.
Mills says Booth’s mother hired an attorney
to obtain temporary guardianship so she could
move her daughter to a rest home in California.
“They...feared that I would unplug her.”
The nonprofit agency has been a “godsend,”
Mills says. “We would’ve been, quite frankly,
ruined if it wasn’t for them.”
Somehow, the couple have managed to keep
Lesbian couple learn fhe hard way why it pays to be prepared
a sense of humor during the whole ordeal. Mills
recalls the questions she asked Booth after she
by Jim R ad o sta
a came out of the coma.
“ I’m like: ‘Did you see a
Booth adds: “She would’ve had com
5 white light? Were you going to
plete control over all my medical direc
I the other side ?’ ” she says. “She’s
tives. She would’ve been talking to the
| like, ‘No, the blue Intel men
doctors. She could’ve instructed the doc
| were there!’ ”
tors not to tell me anything, so I wouldn’t
Even though Booth is out of
know what my condition is and so then
the coma, she isn’t out of the
she could just totally manipulate things.”
woods yet. She suspects her
Mills says the mother also tried to
mother might pursue perma
restrict hospital visitation, claiming the
nent guardianship depending
couple weren’t domestic partners; fortu
on her health.
nately, they were registered in Multnom
“They’re probably going to
ah County. “The hospital didn’t have a
wait and see how I do physically,"
problem, but her mom did.”
Booth says. “If I get sick again,
And that’s not all. Mills says the
they’re going to swoop down and
mother proceeded to put a restraining
try and get a permanent one stat
order on her, accused her of breaking
ing that Melissa didn’t take prop
into Booth’s house and car, and called
er
care of m e.... So that threat is
the postal inspector to allege mail fraud.
still out there.”
“She turned off all of our joint
Marlene Booth (left) and Melissa Mills enjoy a rare moment of peace
The couple are working to set
accounts— our credit cards, our cell
with Aedan
up medical directives in the
phones, our car insurance,” she adds.
event of further hospitalization. Their attorney
Mills initially tried to protect her partner
“She figured if my name was off that I’d go away.”
also is trying to retrieve Booth’s assets from her
Mills has a son, Aedan, who turned 2 in from learning about her mother’s actions so she
mother including her income tax return, furni
December. She says Booth’s mother even contact could concentrate on her recovery. But Booth
ture, documents and artwork.
ed Child Protective Services and tried to have his was persistent in asking questions.
The couple also have retained a family law
“Basically...it made me mad," she says. “It
name removed from a small life insurance policy.
attorney, Booth says. “We’re going to adopt
“I could’ve technically been put in jail for kind of gave me the strength, because it was like,
[Aedan] so that if anything happens and because
this, until they figured out none of this was ‘No, this isn’t right.’ ”
of
my disease that I have— I could have six
The couple are clients of Love Makes a Fam
valid. It could’ve gotten really ugly,” says Mills,
months, I could have 20 years, who knows— but
ily, which advocates for sexual minority parents
28. “1 think if Marlene wouldn’t have woke up
and helped them find attorneys to fight the tem I want to make sure that she can’t step in and try
when she did, this would be a disaster. Not that
this again.”
porary guardianship case. It worked.
it isn’t already.”
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