Hidden Secrets of Boliver

Leigh was dusting off her box of stored memories of her life in foster care when she came to this old dusty black book. In rushed a flood of memories of a summer spent in a youth rehabilitation center in Boliver Tennessee. The old insane asylum Western Mental Health, which was opened in November 22 1889, was home to various killers and criminally insane patients. She didn't know this at the time. She was just a teenager who had run away from home in the early 1970's.

She couldn't believe she still had the book. She dusted it off and with the flying dust she came enveloped in a cloud of memories. How she came to that point of finding herself in odd surroundings and in possession of the book. It was an odd summer. A learning and growing summer.

She had been shipped off to Boliver when her placement at Lebonheurs Childrens’ Hospital didn't work out. Her first look at the additional building of the teen ward was typical of a hospital layout. Except there was a big window where the nurse would watch the newcomers sleep. It was creepy. Nevertheless it was temporary assured her soon to become best friend and fellow patient Julie. Julie advised her that she would be placed in a room without observation windows after a two week trial period. Julie also advised her that writing her name on each piece of her clothing was necessary so that her clothing wouldn't get lost in the rest of the patients clothing. Leigh took immediate offense to this and started to have a melt-down. Julie took her aside and further explained group meetings and badges which earned one certain rights around the creepy place.

Leigh asked if that included exploring the great outdoors. Julie quickly assured her that was possible. It was the coveted blue badge that needed to be earned. After that Leigh fell into a state of attending classes and earning points to get the coveted badge. It wasn't until that badge was earned that the mystery began.

Julie and Leigh started testing the waters so that they could arrange to leave the building together. At first they had to be accompanied by an adult. So they kept it simple visiting the local gardens and asking to visit a few of the adult patients. The elderly patients were sad. They spent their days sitting around in wheelchairs drooling or babbling incoherently. Sometimes they were drooling and screaming. That was when the nurse explained that some patients had to have shock therapy. Leigh knew about shock therapy as her own mother had to have that after a severe depression. After this revelation Julie and Leigh had to start delving into the Boliver's rich, cynical past.

They had finally earned the right to explore without an adult. So they took off to the towers that was rumored to contain the criminally insane in years past. They went up to the tower where an infamous past murderer was chained to the walls. They were told that he would scream explicatives all night long and make personal threats to his caregivers.

When they explored this area, they discovered all kinds of left over relics and inside one was a box full of old medical records and what looked to be a tattered and torn black book. Leah took the book and hid it behind her back under her shirt and tucked into the waist of her blue jeans. She didn't want Julie to rat on her later.

It was that book that brought her back to reality and a need to dust it off and explore it further. Unbeknownst to her that book contained neatly folded hundred's and fifty’s dated in the 1960's. All totaled it came to $20,000. She couldn't believe her eyes. After all this time, this money had been hidden away and no one who searched her belongings when she left the hospital had confiscated it! Unbelievable! So now what? Should she turn the book in and confess where she had found it? Was it somehow Karma repaying her for her unjustly abusive upbringing that brought her to that place? For now she clutched it to her heart and began to think about how this money would help fund her college education while raising her own daughter by herself.

She started thinking about how she would explain how she came into the sudden landfall. Would the police or IRS investigate? What if this money was from a bank robbery? Or had some other cynical background to it? Would it bring her misery if she used it? Was it cursed? She decided to test the waters slowly and see if anything came of it. So on her next trip to the University of Memphis bookstore she paid for her books with $250.00. Then she sat back and waited for any backlash on the news.

And she waited, and she waited. Nothing! When that worked, she decided that the next semester she would pay for her tuition. She wanted to become a teacher. She wanted to help students and have her summer’s off to play with her own daughter. Perhaps if she did something good with the money then what ever evil was attached to the money would make spending it turn out alright. However, after one particularly stressful semester Leigh decided she would treat herself with a cruise. That’s when the nightmares of a blond headed woman who gambled began to invade her sleep and became her waking obsession. She had to know where this dream was leading her. So she started investigating into the past history of Boliver. Was there any scandal involving a disappearance of $20,000 dollars?

Once home from the cruise Leigh took a visit to the Main Branch of the local library to the basement where all the microfilm was stored for the commercial appeal. It was there that she hit upon a story about a woman who robbed a liquor store in Memphis and was eventually committed to Boliver having been determined to be criminally insane. Attached was the picture of the lady she had dreamed about.

Now Leigh had a choice. What would she do with the money? Confess where she had found it? Turn it in? Or continue to try to do something good with it? For now she decided to return it to the dusty old box and think. In the meantime she started to dream...